Creating better links between great ape researchers and zoos and sanctuaries to increase wild-type behaviours in captive animals

对于我们的类人猿亲戚来说，时间已经不多了，它们是在改善人类生活质量和在地球极限内生活之间取得平衡的中心舞台。例如，红毛猩猩栖息在木材开采和棕榈油种植的主要地区;倭黑猩猩栖息在长期战争的地区，山地大猩猩栖息在对钶钽铁矿石和石油等矿物至关重要的地区。如果栖息地的破坏继续快速发展，所有的类人猿将在20年内在野外灭绝（世界自然保护联盟[IUCN]）。在努力可持续地管理野生种群和栖息地的同时，迁地保护（动物园和保护区）至关重要。保护区将类人猿重新引入野外的能力和动物园“保护整个生物体”的能力依赖于鼓励类人猿表现出作为物种在自然栖息地生存能力的重要组成部分的行为。然而，类人猿是最难成功圈养的物种之一。肥胖等健康问题很常见，有些人表现出压力的迹象，这可能与缺乏特定物种的身体和精神活动有关。作为这些物种的管理者，动物园和保护区需要获得有效的工具，以确保在一定的预算范围内保持健康的野生型圈养种群。在伯明翰，我和我的同事创建了一个“围栏设计工具”（EDT）;一个交互式计算机界面，将野生猿类的研究转化为动物园可以使用的格式，以提高猿类的福利。该工具将从动物园黑猩猩收集的行为生态学数据与我们为野生黑猩猩生成的数据配置文件进行比较。然后，它就如何修改外壳以引起缺失或代表性不足的野生型行为提出了建议。在修改之后收集进一步的数据集，并且EDT量化对外壳的更改是否成功。我们的成果是优秀的;例如，我们已经显著提高了黑猩猩的树栖运动水平，并激发了野生型黑猩猩所缺乏的关键行为。EDT有巨大的希望显着改善圈养类人猿的生活。动物园大猩猩、猩猩和倭黑猩猩的EDTs正在开发中，我们刚刚开始了一个为保护区黑猩猩和猩猩开发EDTs的项目。与类人猿研究人员和动物园合作，分享知识、专业知识和雄心，为圈养类人猿的福利以及动物园和野外学术研究的质量产生切实成果。这将部分通过与BIAZA（英国动物园的代表机构）合作创建一个新的巨猿福利党，将研究人员，动物园从业人员，政策制定者和动物福利团体聚集在一起，为每个学科遇到的独特问题找到共同点和创新的解决方案。与动物园和保护区社区合作，支持他们采用EDT，并确保EDT符合他们的要求3。影响动物园政策和最佳实践指南，以更好地了解和反映圈养类人猿的生物需求，基于他们的自然行为和生态4。将EDT的概念扩展到至少一种非猿类动物园物种。我很幸运地在野外研究了类人猿，在印度尼西亚雨林中跟踪猩猩。我希望，在我的奖学金，我可以与动物园，保护区和所有利益相关者的工作，用我的经验，以提高圈养大猩猩的福利，并提高猿重新引入到野外的成功。我也想帮助动物园游客看到动物园猿的行为就像他们的野生亲戚。然后他们也能感受到这是多么的神奇，我们是多么的荣幸，能够在如此近的距离看到我们最亲近的动物亲戚。

Time is running out for our great ape relatives that are centre stage in the balance between improving the quality of human lives and living within the Earth's limits. Orangutans for example inhabit prime areas for timber extraction and palm oil plantations; bonobos inhabit areas of prolonged warfare and mountain gorillas inhabit areas that are crucial for minerals such as Coltan and for oil. If habitat destruction continues apace all great apes will be extinct in the wild within 20 years (World Conservation Union [IUCN]).In parallel with efforts to manage wild populations and habitats sustainably, ex-situ conservation (zoos and sanctuaries) is essential. The ability of sanctuaries to reintroduce great apes back into the wild and of zoos to 'conserve the whole organism' relies on encouraging apes to exhibit the behaviours that are a vital part of the species ability to survive in natural habitats. Great apes are, however, some of the most difficult species to keep successfully in captivity. Health problems, such as obesity, are common, and some display signs of stress, which may relate to a lack of species-specific physical and mental activity. As stewards of these species for current and future generations, zoos and sanctuaries need to be empowered with effective tools to ensure healthy, wild-type captive populations within a range of budgets.At Birmingham, my colleagues and I have created an 'Enclosure Design Tool' (EDT); an interactive computer interface that translates research on wild apes into a format zoos can use to enhance ape welfare. The tool compares behavioural ecology data collected from zoo chimps to data profiles we have generated for wild chimps. It then makes recommendations for how to modify enclosures to elicit missing or under-represented wild-type behaviours. A further dataset is collected after the modifications, and the EDT quantifies whether the changes to the enclosure have been successful. Our results are excellent; for example we have significantly increased the chimps' level of arboreal locomotion and have instigated key wildtype behaviours that had been absent. The EDT has tremendous promise to significantly improve the lives of captive great apes. EDTs for zoo gorillas, orangutans and bonobos are in development and we have just begun a project to develop EDTs for sanctuary chimps and orangutans.The objectives of my Fellowship application are to: 1. work with great ape researchers and zoos to share knowledge, expertise and ambitions to generate tangible outcomes for the welfare of captive great apes and for the quality of academic research in zoos and the wild. This will be partly through working in partnership with BIAZA (the UK Zoo's representative body) to create a new Great Ape Welfare Party that will bring researchers, zoo practitioners, policy makers and animal welfare groups together to find common ground and innovative solutions to the unique problems that each discipline experiences.2. work with the zoo and sanctuary communities to support them in the adoption of the EDTs and to make sure the EDTs meet their requirements3. Influence zoo policy and Best Practise Guidelines to better understand and reflect the biological needs of captive great apes, based on their natural behaviour and ecology 4. extend the EDT concept to at least one non-ape zoo species.I have been fortunate enough to study great apes in the wild, tracking orangutans through the Indonesian rainforest. I hope that in my Fellowship I can work with zoos, sanctuaries and all their stakeholders to use my experience to improve the welfare of captive great apes and improve the success of ape reintroductions back into the wild. I would also like to help zoo visitors see zoo apes behaving just like their wild relatives. Then they too can feel how magical it is, and how privileged we are, to be able to see our closest living animal relatives in such close proximity.