Linking the roles of personality and stress physiology for managing the welfare of captive big cats

Welfare Implications for Tigers in Travelling Circuses

There are very few studies that have focused on species-specific welfare implications for tigers in a travelling circus. The absence of scientific evidence to inform nationwide legislation means that tigers are still commonly used in travelling circuses across the world. A systematic review of relevant published studies was conducted using the bibliographic databases Web of Science and Scopus, supplemented by a narrative search. In total, 42 relevant studies were identified that assessed the welfare of tigers in captivity, including circuses and zoos. Only eight papers assessed the welfare implications for tigers in circuses directly, evidencing the lack of research in this area. Given that circuses provide a sub-optimal environment compared to zoos, implications for tiger welfare were also inferred from zoo research, within the Five Domains framework. Collectively, these papers infer that the travelling nature of a circus often negatively impacts the welfare domains of nutrition, physical environment, health, and mental state. This is due to limitations in enclosure size, as well as in both environmental and behavioural enrichment. There is also often difficulty in sourcing appropriate food and specialised routine veterinary care. The literature is divided concerning behavioural interactions, specifically whether training can improve welfare by offering mental stimulation. However, circus performances are often associated with negative welfare due to noise disruption from spectators. The collective scientific evidence indicates that tigers are not well suited to circus living, due to the inability of a travelling circus to provide for their species-specific psychological, physiological, and behavioural needs.

Personality matters: exploring the relationship between personality and stress physiology in captive African lions

Background

Considering animals as individuals and not as species is becoming increasingly essential to animal welfare management in captive settings. Recent studies on big cat personalities and coping strategies suggest personality can help big cats cope in their surroundings. Yet a large portion of the published literature focuses on understanding either the personality or stress physiology of big cats. Our research shows how integrating an improved understanding of the personality of big cats with stress physiology may enhance welfare, especially for endangered species like African lions. By using a wild cat personality checklist, this study compared the key personality dimensions of 22 African lions with its faecal glucocorticoids and assessed factors influencing their personality and stress physiology.

Results

We found two reliable personality dimensions for African lions (dominance and agreeableness) and identified key factors (sex, age and location) that may influence their personality. Further, on testing if these factors influenced the stress physiology through variations in glucocorticoid levels, there was no significant difference. However, there was a strong negative association between agreeableness and glucocorticoid levels. These results suggest that the behavioural traits loading positively and higher for agreeableness are associated with lower glucocorticoid stress levels, which may assist a lion to cope with stressors in its surroundings.

Conclusions

Our findings highlight this integrated approach of linking personality and stress physiology of big cats can be beneficial for caretakers. For example, during stressful veterinary procedures or in reintroduction programs, recognizing the personality of lions can help in designing or providing them with resources that will alleviate stress. Thus, there is a need for more interdisciplinary approaches that will contribute towards enhancing the individual and overall welfare of big cats.