The Principles of Animal Welfare for Captive Wild Animals in Zoos

What is Wild Welfare?“Wild Welfare was established to address the issue of poor captive wild animal welfare in a practical and strategic manner.”

“Our Vision is to end the suffering of captive wild animals around the world, ensuring full and sustainable protection is given to all animals in human care.” 

How Does Wild Welfare Improve Captive Animal Welfare?

We provide practical support. public and policy agendas We build relationships We provide informative and accessible guides

“We lend weight to challenging issues, and create a positive international captive animal welfare movement through an informed expert approach, knowledge-based decisions and establishment of strong partnerships.” .”

We do not support or condone Bad Zoos or poor

animal welfare under any

circumstances

A vets role in a zoo…

Primarily want to have fun!

Poor animal welfare doesn’t support a fun environment…

Good zoos create immersive happy environments that people want to return too

Poor Welfare Good Welfare

Approx. 80% of captive facilities fall into a Category of Very Poor Welfare

Approx. 15% of captive facilities fall into a Category of Average Welfare

Approx. 5% of captive facilities fall into a Category of Good Welfare

Why is poor welfare bad?

How do we define Animal Welfare?

It’s historically been very difficult to define welfare…Perceptions of animal welfare are culturally sensitive, globally variable and subject to change through time American Veterinary Medical Association “Animal welfare means how an animal is coping with the conditions in which it lives. An animal is in a good state of welfare if (as indicated by scientific evidence) it is healthy, comfortable, well nourished, safe, able to express innate behavior, and if it is not suffering from unpleasant states such as pain, fear, and distress.”

As more species are being identified as sentient, i.e have the ability to feel and have a consciousness like humans, then it is clear that simply providing for their basic needs is not enough and we need to take it a step further.

Physical Health and Mental Welfare

ill-health has often been considered the principle mechanism by which welfare can be safeguarded.

But…

“I learned that health was to be had at a certain cost… Thus I am now better than I was but not happier”

Sigmund Freud

“The fact that the lower animals are excited by the same emotions as ourselves is so well established that it will not be necessary to weary the reader by many details.”Charles DarwinYour own welfare can be negative or positive Your own welfare is dependent on both your physical surroundings and uses, and also your mental state. Your own welfare may fluctuate on a daily basis Your own welfare will differ from someone else’s who is experiencing the same environment

Welfare is about what state an individual is in and can refer to actual feelings and sensations

Good welfare works to minimise negative states (feelings) while promoting the positive states (feelings).

Can we be this simple?

Animals that are happy have good welfare, animals that are unhappy do not

Yes! To a degree….

Cognition (mental state) is linked to sentience capacity, an ability to feel and experience emotions. Animals can experience a range of emotions. A negative state is an experience that animal’s try and avoid, such as fear, hunger, pain. This is a state an animal is motivated to minimise. A positive mental state can occur when an animal’s physical needs are met. This is a state that an animal is motivated to experience such as joy and contentment.

Emotions are motivators - Emotions are designed to move you along a certain course of action, given circumstances. Each emotional state acts as an intrinsic compass. Understanding these emotions and what causes them, can advance our understanding in husbandry and animal management techniques in order to ensure good animal welfare.

Good welfare will mean something different to different species AND different individuals

Nature - Genetic needs are those that an animal is pre-disposed to desire.

Nurture – Past experiences and self evolved needs may determine current and future individual preferences and have an impact on welfare if these

needs are not met.We must use accessible and measurable indices of welfare and apply

this knowledge to provide for these natural needs in an unnatural environment.

Zoos – the variety of life…

NATURE – GENETIC NEEDS

NATURE

• The fight-or-flight response• chronic stress early in life can predispose to cognitive decline and

shorter lifespan

NURTURE

NURTURE – PAST EXPERIENCES AND SELF EVOLVED NEEDS(Behavioural Scarring)

NURTURE

Animal Welfare Concepts

Behaviour: e.g.

environment-focused and inter-animal activities are satisfying and

engaging

Health: e.g. physically

sound (uninjured,

disease-free) animals enjoy good health

Nutrition: e.g. appropriate consumption of nutritious

foods is a pleasurable experience

Environmental: e.g. benign

conditions offer adaptive choices and

variety

Mental or Emotional State: e.g. animal’s

experience comfort, pleasure,

interest and confidence

PHYSICAL DOMAINMENTAL DOMAIN

The Physical Domain affects the present physical and psychological needs of animal. The Mental Domain is effected by both the present and past physical domain and experiences

How can we promote positive welfare in captivity?

Identify both physical and behavioural needsSpecies SpecificAllow for Self Evolved NeedsAccommodate Behavioural ScarringMeasure, Assess Adapt

Providing appropriate food and water to meet the animal’s biological needs,

Presenting the food in a manner to satisfy its normal feeding behavior,Providing an appropriate, stimulating environment with suitable shelter

and accommodation, andProviding a high standard of husbandry and veterinary care, including

rapid diagnosis and treatment of injury or ill health.

UNSUITABLE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT (dirty water, no food, no stimulation, lonely etc)

SUITABLE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT (stimulating, quality food, social interactions, refuges etc)

FEAR HUNGER PAIN

STRESS

HEALTHY SOCIAL NATURAL

CONTENT

MENTAL STATE

BearsBehaviours to encourage• Exploratory/Foraging• Nesting/Rolling• Olfactory (smelling and

marking)• Grooming/Rubbing/Scratching/

Bathing=HAPPY & CONTENT!Behaviours you want to minimise• Abnormal pacing• Lethargy and depression• Self mutilation • Aggression- FRUSTRATED & BORED

Platform!Soft Substrate

Smells Scratching post

How to Measure Animal Welfare in Zoos?To effectively audit welfare we need to understand what factors impact welfare• Physiology & genetics• Species – specific behaviours• Physical & social environment • History (type of upbringing, training etc, behavioural scaring)

Welfare assessments should;• incorporate behavioural, physiological and clinical indicators;

How to Measure Animal Welfare in Zoos?

Abnormal or Normal Behaviour?

• Assessment of approach/avoidance behaviour;

• Assessment of incidence and intensity of stereotypies; Assessment of the occurrence of over grooming and other self- harming behaviours.

• Behavioural apathy (low levels of activity, excessive sleeping/resting) can be caused by chronic stress, depression and anhedonia (impaired abilities to feel pleasure).

• Poor maternal care/infanticide

• Hyper aggression; aggressive interactions that result in injury pose a welfare problem.  

How to Measure Animal Welfare in Zoos?

Physiological indicators• Cortisol levels; Cortisol can be measured in blood plasma, saliva,

faeces and urine.

• Immune measures; the relative concentrations of neutrophils and lymphocytes in the blood may be affected by hormonal responses to stress.

• Weight changes; Weight changes can occur as a result of a wide variety of normal or pathological factors.

How to Measure Animal Welfare in Zoos?

Clinical and pathological indicators

• Visual inspection to identify a large number of parameters for example a change in response to humans or conspecifics, failure to feed, distress vocalizations, wounds, obvious infection/discomfort, abnormal texture and colour of faeces etc.

• Health and Husbandry Records; assessment of demographic data (birth rates, mortality rates, longevity) and health data (disease categories/types and incidence)

it is still easy either to misinterpret the signs seen or to miss cases of poor welfare altogether.

Click icon to add pictureTo provide a welfare assessment requires access to and knowledge of species specific physiological and behavioural needs

Animal Welfare and Conservation

I took lots of photographs and had planned to write a treatise on how it worked, but I quickly got bored with that idea and wrote a scientific fairy tale instead.

Kit Williams

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• Ex-situ population

• Advocacy Campaign

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• Official Permissions

• Conservation NGO partner

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