Basic Keeper Technology Test 3

Restraint & Handling, Animal Behavior, Animal Breeding, Feeding, Basic Animal Training

Restraint

- A measure or condition that keeps someone or something under control or within limits
- the action of keeping someone or something under control

Levels of Restraint

- Behavioral/Psychological (training, flight distance, body position)
- Physical
- Mechanichal
- Chemical
- Methods can be used alone, but mostly with another method

Why restrain?

- Health check (annual exam)
- Injury/illness check
- Move from location
- Maintenance on exhibit
- Education

Stressor

any stimulus that elicits a response when perceived by an animal

Physical threats

- temperature changes
- sights
- sounds
- odor
- hunger
- thirst
- close confinement

Psychological threat

- Anxiety
- frustration
- overcrowding
- lack of social contact
- transport
- heirarchy

Reactions to stress

- Varies by species and individual
- Increased cortisol levels
- Gastrointestinal ulcers
- Decrease reproduction
- Decreased metabolism
- Interfere with immune system

Restraint Plan

- Knowledge of the species
- Preferred Restraint Method
- Equipment and Staff needed (experienced and comfortable?)
- Safety Concerns
- Capture Techniques
- Release and Recovery
- Every Restraint event is different
- Plan for the worst, hope for the best

What to consider when restraining (Environment)?

- Season
- Heat/Cold
- Terrain
- Exhibit - Holding
- Remember "Excitement weakens barriers"

What to consider when restraining (Animal)?

- Individual restraint history
- Behavioral Aspects
- Heirarchy status
- Health status
- Territorial
- Amount of stress (capture myopathy)

Behavioral restraint

- Husbandry training, desense, operant conditioning facilitate or perform a procedure
- Animal must fully cooperate for this to work
- lots of prep time
- saves time in long-term

Psychological Restraint

- Using knowledge of an individual or species persona to restrain the animal
- knowledge of anatomy and physiology
- knowledge of flight distance
- Diminishing senses (blindfold, dark v. light)
- Handlers confidence level
- Scare/Intimidation

Physical restraint

- Physical force is used to restrain the animal
- hands
- Herding boards/shields
-Nets, poles, tongs, hooks

Bird Restraint

- don't compress the chest
- Fold in wings
- Caution around the beak
- Watch nails, talons

Iguana Restraint

- Grasp behind head on neck
- grasp in front of and around rear leg

Mechanical Restraint

- Physical restraint system which limits the animal's movement while protecting the handler
- squeeze chute
- drop chute
- box
- cage
- tube

Chemical Restraint

Use of medication to restrain the animal

Delivery of chemical restraint

- Oral
- Vaporizer
- Hand-held syringe
- pole syringe
- blowgun
- feeding or not feeding an animal prior to chemical immobilization

SubQ

Subcutaneous
under the skin

IM

Intramuscular
into the muscle

IV

Intravenous
Into the vein

What to monitor during treatment

- Body position
- Eyes
- Respiration
- Temperature control
- Pre-release
- Release
- Post-release complications

Animal Behavior

Anything an animal does involving action in respnse to a stimulus

External Stimulus

Something outside the animal
ex. Sound, sight, smell, weather, another animal

Internal Stimulus

Something inside the animal
ex. Hunger, fatigue, hormones, illness

Observation of animals

- Be objective
- Ask questions
- Research the question
- Form a hypothesis
-Can you draw a conclusion about the behavior?

Why study behavior?

- Understand why animalsdo what they do
- Take better care of them
- Determine how animals learn
- Safety (for keeper and animal)
- Conservation

Animal Welfare

the degree to which an animal can cope with challenges in the environment

How is animal welfare demonstrated

- Good health
- Psychological well-being
- Provide animals with choices

Food related Behavioral concerns

- change in appetite
- Regurgitation
- Non-edible items
- Cribbing, bar licking

Mobility Behavioral concerns

- Pacing
- Lethargy
- Unusual gait

Social behavioral Concerns

- Aggression or Submission
- Neglect Offspring
- Not socializing with conspecifics

Comfort/Grooming behavioral concerns

- Overgrooming
- fur plucking
- Excessive licking
- scratching

Stereotypical Behavior

- ARB (Abnormal Repetitive Behaviors)
- Normal behaviors but taken to an abnormal level
- Repetitive
- Displacement activities

What can you do about stereotypic behaviors?

- Remove the need to perform the behavior
- Don't just try to prevent behavior

Ethology

study of an animal's natural behavior

Behavioral Repertoire

all the things that an animal is capable of doing

Ethogram

Quantitative description of an animal's behavior

Behavioral Observation Sampling methods

- Continuous
- scan

Continuous Sample

just like it sounds

Scan sampling method

record at regular intervals (every minute, or every 20 seconds)

What motivates an animal?

- Food
- Socialization (dominance)
- Animals may fear ot be interested in you
- may not want to go into a dark cave or enclosed space
- Weather (may not want to go to a warm area or a cold area)

Practical animal behavior

- Introductions
- Feeding Animals
- Close Contact with Animals
- Restraint and Handling

Diet

all foods offered and/or accessible to an animal, regardless of purpose

Feeding Procedure

- When you are ready to feed your animals (is cleaning done?)
- Pick up diet
- Confirm diet is correct
- Place diet into enclosure according to procedures

What should you look for to make sure the diet is correct?

- Amount
- Type
- Form (size, shape)
- Quality (spoilage)

Considerations when feeding

- Multiple animals
- Weather (cold weather, rain)
- Documentation (%eaten v. %gone)

Advantages of Browse

- Simulates naturalistic feeding
- can provide substantial nutrients
- adds variety

Disadvantages of Browse

- Availability
- Toxicity
- Spoilage
- Nutrient content?

Advantages of Produce

- Adds variety
- easy to acquire, store, deliver

Disadvantages of Produce

- Commercial produce (high sugar, low fiber)
- Will eat this before the rest of diet

How do animals learn?

Nature v. Nurture

Nature/Innate:

instinct and genes determine behavior

Nurture/Learned:

Experience and learning influence behavior

What is training?

- Type of learning
- human managed learning

Learning

Change in behavior due to experience

Training on the Job

- Behavioral Management Skills
- Training is a routine part of a keeper's job
- integrated into the animal's daily care
- happens with your animals every day

Classical Conditioning

- neutral stimulus paired with a stimulus that elicits a response (ex. food)
- Involuntary reaction
- Pavlov's Dog

Operant Conditioning

Consequence affects behavior

Antecedent

- "cue"
- anything that happens before a behavior, signaling a behavior to occur

Behavior

- how you or your animal will respond to the antecedent/cue

Consequence

Happens after the behavior, determines if the behavior will occur again

Secondary Reinforcement

- Conditioned reinforcement
- Does not serve a biological need
- Pairing a neutral event with a non-neutral event
- add flexibility to reinforcement strategy
- the bridging stimulus is a secondary reinforcer

Primary reinforcer

unconditioned
food

Bridging Stimulus

- Special type of secondary reinforcer
- signals exact moment criteria is met
- reinforcement is on the way

Breeding

the entire process of maintaining a species from a reproductive standpoint

Reproduction

When organisms multiply or produce offspring (sexual or asexual)

5 Factors to consider with breeding

- Genetics
- Physical structure
- Hormones
- Behavioral Patterns
- Population

Population Demographics

- changes in the populations
- How many animals are available
- the viability of each

4 Steps of Reproduction

1. Mate Seeking/Finding Selection
2. Copulation
3. The new animal (embryo) grows
4. Parturition

Parturition

Giving birth

Copulation

the mating of a male an female

Which animals have internal testes

- Marine mammals
- elephants
- sloth
- armadillo

Cryptorchidism

- Reproductive disorder
- "hidden testes"
- associated with in breeding
- Inherited and undesirable trait

Secondary Sex Characteristic (male)

- Manes
- muscles
- antlers

Cloaca

- Common opening for intestine, urinary tract, and reproductive material

Estrogen

- Responsible for secondary sex characteristics
- maintains estrous and menstral cycles

Ovulation

- Ova (egg) matures in the ovary
- Egg is contained in the follicle
- Luteinizing hormone (LH) increases (LH surge)
- Release of the egg from the follicle = OVULATION
- Egg moves into the oviducts
- if sperm is present, fertilization occurs

Progesterone causes:

- Implantation of fertilized egg in the uterus
- other eggs are stopped from formed
- pregnant condition is maintained
- mammary glands develop

external opening of the cloaca

Menstrual

- Great apes and humans
- the lining of the uterus (menses) is shed in the lining

Estrus

- most other animals
- Period of receptivity
- no lining
- "heat"

Behavioral signs of estrus

- Standing when mounted
- Nervousness
- Swelling of the vulva
- Mucus discharge
- Presentation of vulva
- Vocalization
- Tail raised ot moved to the side

Short Day Breeders

- Cycle when days are getting shorter (Fall)
- sheep, deer, goats, elk
- Anestrus in Spring and Summer

Long Day Breeders

- Cycle when days are getting longer (Spring)
- Horses, hamsters, birds
- Anestrus in Fall and Winter

- Physical condition
- Infections
- Sexual Behavior
- Cysts
- Cryptorchidism