Behavioural Research

When you come to the zoo, do you ever wonder what the animals are thinking? So do we! That’s why we take the time to study their behaviour; what the animals are doing tells us what they are thinking. By studying the patterns of their behaviour, we can tell if they are happy, sad, sick, or bored. Our researchers also spend time coming up with ways to keep the animals entertained in their exhibits. This includes giving the animals toys to play with, designing puzzles for animals to think and learn with, and hiding food to emphasize natural foraging. Although behaviour isn’t as well studied as other aspects of animal care, it is just as important, because when the animals are happy, they are also healthy, and that’s the ultimate goal of Toronto Zoo!

On this page:

EFFECT OF VISITORS ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF ZOO ANIMALS

AFRICAN ELEPHANTS - Elephant Stereotypical Behaviour (Dr. S. MacDonald)

ORANGUTANS - Behavioural Assessment

SUMATRAN AND SIBERIAN TIGERS, CLOUDED AND SNOW LEOPARDS - Scent as an Enrichment Tool in Felines

VANCOUVER ISLAND MARMOTS - Maternal care and pup development study

POLAR BEARS - Non-invasive Assessment of endocrine parameters, particularly thyroid hormones, in Polar Bears

HYENA - Carnivore Agency at Archaeological Sites: The Effects of Hyaena Gnawing on the Bones of Large-sized Mammals

REINDEER - Telemetry Study: Calibration of remotely-sensed behaviours using accelerometer data

POLAR BEARS - Olfactory Communication in Polar Bears - Implications for Conservation in the Face of Increasing Habitat Fragmentation

CHEETAHS - Cheetahs in Captivity: Behaviour, Husbandry, Biomechanics and Genetics

EFFECT OF VISITORS ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF ZOO ANIMALS

The behavior of many species may be affected, both positively and negatively, by the presence of visitors. The number of visitors, traffic patterns, and noise may all have an impact on activity levels, social behavior, and overall health of the animals. This summer, the behavior of the Sumatran and Siberian tigers, as well as mandrills, will be assessed with the behavior of zoo visitors to those exhibit areas.

AFRICAN ELEPHANTS - Elephant Stereotypical Behaviour (Dr. S. MacDonald)

The purpose of this study is to examine the behaviour of the Zoo’s elephants while inside the elephant house. Two of the elephants have shown stereotypical “swaying” while inside the house and a preliminary has study suggested that visitor noise may have an effect on this behaviour. Observations will continue throughout the year to monitor this behaviour and to determine other factors that may trigger its onset.

ORANGUTANS - Behavioural Assessment

The effects and documentation of effective enrichment techniques, including finger-painting, spatial foraging tasks, and computer touch-screen games will be recorded.

VANCOUVER ISLAND MARMOTS - Maternal care and pup development study

Maternal behavior toward altricial young is an important predictor of the pup’s resistance to stress in later life. Maternal behavior has not been studied in Vancouver Island marmots, Canada’s most endangered mammal, and thus we know little about what types of behaviors occur, and whether there are individual differences between marmot mothers in maternal care. In this study, 24-hour videotapes of the first seven days post-parturition will be studied for four pairs of marmots. Maternal and paternal behavior will be examined, including amount and frequency of pup care (grooming, licking, nursing), number and duration of nest leaves by the mother, and parental interactions. POLAR BEARS - Introduction of bears to new exhibit

The newly renovated polar bear exhibit is scheduled to open soon, and the bears will arrive at the end of June. Behavioral observations will be done throughout the summer of 2009 to assess how the bears adapt to the new exhibit, and to each other. Activity levels (including relative frequency of play and stereotypical behaviors such as pacing) will be assessed.

POLAR BEARS - Non-invasive Assessment of endocrine parameters, particularly thyroid hormones, in Polar Bears

Endocrine assessment is an important tool in wildlife management for the evaluation of environmental threats. The thyroid hormones regulate elements of development, energy balance and metabolism in all mammals and have been important biomarkers for exposure to endocrine-disrupting organic pollutants in a variety of wildlife species and humans. In polar bears, there is a negative association between organic contaminants and thyroid hormones. Thyroid hormones also reflect the nutritional status of mammals and are reduced during periods of nutritional stress in polar bears. Thus the measurement of thyroid hormones has the potential to reflect both exposure to organic pollutants and nutritional stress associated with climate-induced habitat loss. Unfortunately the collection of blood samples from wild animals is fraught with logistical difficulties because of their non-tractable natures. An alternative to blood sampling is the non-invasive assessment of hormones in the feces and urine. These techniques are widely used by zoos and wildlife biologists to assess gonadal and adrenal function and allow repeated longitudinal sampling without causing stress to the animal, something that is almost impossible with blood collection in wild animals. However, there have been no reports of using noninvasive techniques to monitor thyroid function in wildlife except for a recent report of using fecal thyroid concentrations to assess thyroid function in tree swallows nesting near sewage treatment plants. The objective is to develop an effective non-invasive method of assessing thyroid function in polar bears for use in field studies. Fecal samples will be collected from captive polar bears to assess the effect of sex, reproductive status, season and stress on thyroid function. Fecal endocrine measurements in captive polar bears will be compared with those measured in wild polar bears.

HYENA - Carnivore Agency at Archaeological Sites: The Effects of Hyaena Gnawing on the Bones of Large-sized Mammals

In order to address questions about past human behaviour, archaeologists study the material remains that people have left behind. Such material remains include artifacts such as pottery and stone tools but also the bones of animals. Animal bone remains are the material remains that are of concern in this research project.

A prominent problem in archaeology has been determining whether humans or hyenas were responsible for the accumulation of animal bones at an archaeological site. This project sets out to find a way of distinguishing between these two agents of accumulation.

It has been hypothesized that hyenas create very specific marks and patterns on the animal bones that they have gnawed. To support or refute this hypothesis, an experiment was designed hereby the bones of certain mammals will be fed to hyenas in order to observe their feeding behaviour. The bones will be collected after the hyenas are finished with them and examined to see if the marks and patterns are analogous to those found on bones from archaeological sites. If the hypothesis is upheld, archaeologists will be able to use this information to make justified inferences about site formation.

REINDEER - Telemetry Study: Calibration of remotely-sensed behaviours using accelerometer data

Potential economic development activities in the Far North are likely to involve roads, forestry, mining, and hydro development, all of which could influence the persistence of caribou eco-types. These concerns are in addition to the well-documented decline of the forest-dwelling caribou which are “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act in Ontario and nationally under the federal Species at Risk Act. There are basic knowledge needs for both forest-dwelling and forest-tundra caribou eco-types. The first phase of the study will compare patterns of habitat use, demography and movement parameters across the 4 landscapes, as an observational test of several alternative hypotheses for caribou decline. Results of this first phase of work will be used to provide parameters for a spatially explicit population viability model for woodland caribou. Caribou will be fitted with a collar that includes a GPS-argos system and an active accelerometer – data-logger system to record continuous activity. The usefulness of the cameras and the optimal placement angle of the equipment will tested on reindeer at the Toronto Zoo prior to being mounted on wild caribou in March 2010.

POLAR BEARS – Olfactory Communication in Polar Bears - Implications for Conservation in the Face of Increasing Habitat Fragmentation

Polar bears are largely solitary and breed seasonally. As such, the need to find appropriate mates at the right time is dependent upon effective, and long-range, social communication. Intra-specific communication in the polar bear is not well understood. Theoretically, polar bears should rely on olfactory signals, especially during the early phases of estrus to locate appropriate mates. The goal of this research is to determine whether chemical communication may be an important part of intra-specific communication for the polar bear. Scent discrimination tests will be performed on captive adult polar bears and to test the differential responsiveness to male versus female pedal scents, as well as estrus versus non-estrus females. This study utilizes pedal swabs that have been collected from wild bears on Alaska’s North Slope. Samples will be presented to captive bears at a variety of N. American zoos. Bears will have olfactory access only to the scents and gustatory or tactile access will be precluded during scent presentation.

Scents will be presented to subject bears in a plexi-glass “sandwich.” Data collection during scent presentation trials will follow methods developed and used in previous studies with polar bears and giant pandas. All scent presentations will be videotaped and behavioural responses will be decoded.

CHEETAHS - Cheetahs in Captivity: Behaviour, Husbandry, Biomechanics and Genetics

The project focuses mainly on the behaviour of captive cheetahs in relation to husbandry practices, as well as other variables in captivity in which cheetahs may be reacting behaviourally, e.g. visitors. The main goal of the research is to determine what factors cause observed cheetah behaviour in captivity. This information can then be used to understand the effect of captivity on cheetah behaviour, as well as possibly resulting in changes to husbandry practices in order to improve the behavioural diversity seen in captivity, while also decreasing the incidence of abnormal behaviours.