Photo by Melanie Laurendine
Husbandry
Animal husbandry refers to ways that we address the physiological, biological, psychological, and social needs of the animals under our care. Animal welfare is a direct result of how well these needs are met. This means ensuring animals’ physical health and their psychological well-being. Ensuring physical health includes providing for appropriate nutrition, exercise, social groupings, veterinary care, and environmental conditions. Ensuring psychological well-being involves addressing animals’ motivational needs, providing them with choice and control, matching the environment to their natural adaptations, and encouraging them to develop and use their cognitive abilities. These two aspects of husbandry together drive animal welfare.
The Orangutan SSP promotes high standards of welfare for all orangutans. To do so, we have to recognize five important points: (1) animal welfare ranges on a continuum from very poor to very good, and there are no clear dividing lines between “good welfare” and “bad welfare”; (2) animal welfare must be assessed at the individual-animal level, not at the group or species level; (3) good welfare will look different for different individuals – it’s relative, not absolute; (4) there is no single measure of welfare –we need to look at multiple variables to assess an individual’s welfare status; and (5) welfare is a quality of the animal, it is not something we provide to animals – what we provide are the appropriate conditions or the potential for animals to experience good welfare.
Animal husbandry refers to ways that we address the physiological, biological, psychological, and social needs of the animals under our care. Animal welfare is a direct result of how well these needs are met. This means ensuring animals’ physical health and their psychological well-being. Ensuring physical health includes providing for appropriate nutrition, exercise, social groupings, veterinary care, and environmental conditions. Ensuring psychological well-being involves addressing animals’ motivational needs, providing them with choice and control, matching the environment to their natural adaptations, and encouraging them to develop and use their cognitive abilities. These two aspects of husbandry together drive animal welfare.
The Orangutan SSP promotes high standards of welfare for all orangutans. To do so, we have to recognize five important points: (1) animal welfare ranges on a continuum from very poor to very good, and there are no clear dividing lines between “good welfare” and “bad welfare”; (2) animal welfare must be assessed at the individual-animal level, not at the group or species level; (3) good welfare will look different for different individuals – it’s relative, not absolute; (4) there is no single measure of welfare –we need to look at multiple variables to assess an individual’s welfare status; and (5) welfare is a quality of the animal, it is not something we provide to animals – what we provide are the appropriate conditions or the potential for animals to experience good welfare.
The AZA's Animal Welfare Committee defines 6 programs that contribute to maximizing an animal’s potential to experience high levels of welfare: (1) Enrichment, or using knowledge of an animal’s natural and individual history to provide species-appropriate control/choices; (2) Habitat, or the complexity of an animal’s physical and social environment; (3) Nutrition, or the science of ensuring that an animal is provided with a complete and balanced diet; (4) Research, or using the scientific method to address basic and applied questions about an animal’s behavior, physiology, genetics, etc.; (5) Health, or the prevention and treatment of illness and injury; and (6) Training, or using a variety of techniques including habituation and classical and operant conditioning to teach an animal to cooperate with and participate in its own management.
The integration and coordination of these 6 programs, and the feedback among them, makes up the overall program of animal husbandry – using knowledge of an animal’s natural and individual history to provide high-quality care. If the six programs of animal husbandry are in place – and are effective – then we can presume that we have maximized the potential for the animals in our care to experience good welfare.
One of the highest-profile efforts to provide zoos with the ability to maximize welfare is the Animal Care Manual (ACM) project. The ACM project is a collaborative effort between the TAGs, SSPs, the Animal Welfare Committee, and individual AZA members to create guidelines for animal care for species in AZA collections. These guidelines combine up-to-date scientific information (science) and years of animal care expertise (art) in an easy-to-use template that identifies the biological and physical needs of the animals. The ACMs also include current TAG recommendations. The manuals assemble basic requirements, best practices, and animal care recommendations to maximize our capacity for excellence in animal care and welfare.
The Orangutan SSP's ACM was published in November 2017 and is available in the Resources section of this web site, or from the AZA's Animal Programs database.
The integration and coordination of these 6 programs, and the feedback among them, makes up the overall program of animal husbandry – using knowledge of an animal’s natural and individual history to provide high-quality care. If the six programs of animal husbandry are in place – and are effective – then we can presume that we have maximized the potential for the animals in our care to experience good welfare.
One of the highest-profile efforts to provide zoos with the ability to maximize welfare is the Animal Care Manual (ACM) project. The ACM project is a collaborative effort between the TAGs, SSPs, the Animal Welfare Committee, and individual AZA members to create guidelines for animal care for species in AZA collections. These guidelines combine up-to-date scientific information (science) and years of animal care expertise (art) in an easy-to-use template that identifies the biological and physical needs of the animals. The ACMs also include current TAG recommendations. The manuals assemble basic requirements, best practices, and animal care recommendations to maximize our capacity for excellence in animal care and welfare.
The Orangutan SSP's ACM was published in November 2017 and is available in the Resources section of this web site, or from the AZA's Animal Programs database.
The Orangutan Husbandry Manual is maintained by Chicago Zoological Society.
Click here to download the International Primatological Society’s guidelines for the captive care of primates.
Click here to download the International Primatological Society’s guidelines for the captive care of primates.