Presentation Details
| Poison Dart Frog Visual Enrichment Preferences and their Effects on Behavior Jess Diaz, Kevin D.Kohl. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA |
Abstract
Efforts to improve husbandry for animals in captivity often focus on environmental enrichment, or the practice of providing stimuli to encourage natural behavior patterns and positive welfare states. However, enrichment often focuses on tactile or dietary enrichment, to the neglect of other potentially important areas such as visual stimuli. The color of animal's enclosure has been shown to affect stress behavior, growth rate, and pigmentation in fish and frogs. Here, we extend previous research to explore whether including complex visual elements, in addition to enclosure color, influences animal stress and behavior. We focus this study on the strawberry poison frog (Oophaga pumilio), a species which is highly reliant on visual cues for mate choice and conspecific identification. We specifically test individual preference for visual complexity, and whether short-term housing in environments with different visual complexity affect enclosure use, exploratory behavior, and stress physiology. Understanding how animals respond to visual enrichment is important for ensuring optimal welfare in captivity and also has research implications for lab animal housing.
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
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