Welfare advantages of 2 stories macaque group cage
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Transcript of Welfare advantages of 2 stories macaque group cage
Welfare advantages of a 2 story macaque group cage
Bushmitz Moshe DVM - BFC Israel [email protected]
2003
• Commercial breeding farm of ‘Macaca fascicularis’
• SPF colony (B virus, SRV, STLV free), operative from 1990.
• 450 breeders: 30-40F + 2-3 M in per group.
• 250 offspring per year.
BFC Israel
Social factors & primate welfare
• Macaques have a complex social structure.
• In a group there are low & high ranking animals, babies & adults living in a limited space.
• Focus: improving the quality of life for low ranking animals, who are more susceptible to aggression.
• Main challenges: aggression & breeding.
Visual barriers• VB screens (VB) divide the space into subspaces and allow low ranking animals to hide from other animals and staff.
• We use vertical standing VB, hanging VB , and barrels.
• VB are essential to reducing aggression but numbers must be limited as too many can interfere with cleaning and catching.
Old cage setting• One level cage, 6 m wide ,12 m long and 2m high divided in the middle (after 6m) to allow isolation and catching.
New 2 story cage with horizontal VB• We built a 4m high cage with a wooden floor separating the 2 levels, allowing animals to freely move up and down through multiple openings.
Observation points- “control tower”• Attention should be given to provide attractive vantage points so that high ranking animals will have less motivation to chase animals to the lower level
Creating a cage like a tree• The cage is like an imaginary tree with a sunny canopy, in the middle there is a wooden floor similar to branches, and the floor is for foraging or swimming.
Would the 2 story cage reduce aggression ?
• The new cage setting has 7x’s more VB surface (49sqm vs 7sqm)
• Would the low ranking animals hide under the wooden floor as they hid behind the VB ?
• Very quickly, the 1st level became the preferred area for those animals.
• The high cage better meets primates’ needs to climb, jump and hide.
• Another benefit of the floor is that the lower level is darker, making it more difficult for dominant animals to spot low ranking animals underneath.
Reduction in aggression
0.0
7.5
15.0
22.5
30.0
1 story 2 story
aggression/session
-45%
• Moving to the 2 story cage, aggression was reduced by 45%.
How animals use the environment in conflicts
• Animals preferred moving to the lower level during conflicts, demonstrating how effective the floor is as a visual barrier.
0
15
30
45
60
move to lower level Standing VBHanging VB barrels
11%
56%
25%
8%
• 3 copulatory strategies are used by the β male:
• Hiding: hides to copulate.
• Opportunism:takes risks to copulate, even if he's near α.
• Distance:takes distance from α before copulating.
• β male used hiding, a less risky strategy, in the 2 story cage.
0
20
40
60
80
1 story 2 story
hidingopportunismdistance
42% - same level58% - other level
Would the new cage improve breeding?
Female time budgets• In the 2 story cage:
• positive social grooming increased.
• self-grooming decreased
• feeding and foraging increased.
0.0
7.5
15.0
22.5
30.0
1 story 2 story
social groomingself groomingfeeding/foraging
Eating in the 2nd level• Most of the social activity is done in the upper level. • Food is given only on the lower level so high ranking animals are taking small amounts of food and climbing up . This allows the low ranking animals better access to food and forces obese animals to exercise.
Special adaptation for growing macaques• Many more climbing devices, stable swings, swimming pools, less VB as there are no problems of aggression.
Welfare & enrichment in breeding facilities• Enriching environments require big investments. • Animals bred for research should be psychologically as well as physically healthy.