Liselotte Lasse (KU-BIO), Torben Dabelsteen (KU-BIO), Mikkel Stelvig
In this project I studied 5 giraffes in Copenhagen zoological garden. I observed how enrichment of their enclosure affected them and their behaviour. My specific focus of the observation was how a sack filled with fresh leaves, affected their use of the area within which the sack was placed. The sack had holes in, so the giraffes had to use their tongues to reach the leaves.
This is a good way to activate giraffes because giraffe’s often have an oral stereotypy, and lick on bars or other non food materials, when they are bored.
I observed how they used their stable, when the sack was visible in contrast to when it was not. I also observed if there was any difference in how they used their time on in the morning compared to in afternoon.
I studied the giraffes 4 weeks in total. One week without the sack, 2 weeks with the sack and then once week more without the sack. I spent 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon and noted their behaviour and their specific location. I used scan sampling and one-zero sampling. Every 3rd Minute I noted how the giraffes behaved and their location. Between every scan point, I noted if the giraffes did different events.
The result of the study is that the sack did not have a great effect on where the giraffes where. During the weeks, I did not find any significant alteration between the times spent in the different zones in the stable during the 4 weeks. The only significant result was found in giraffe A. The time it spent in zone 3 differed significantly during the morning sessions. on how much it was in zone 3. It used the zone most during week 4 and least during week 2.
The study showed a significant difference in what the giraffes did in the morning compared to the afternoon. In the afternoon they used significant more time on eating then in the morning, whereas they spent significant more time on licking the bars and just standing in the morning.
The end result of the whole study is that the giraffes do not react to the sack as much as expected, so the zookeepers should be able to try to introduce the sack to the giraffes again in the spring or summer this year.