Seasonal variation in Stereotypie pacing in an American black bear Ursus americanus

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1 Behavioural Proesses, 25 (1991 ) lsevier Siene Publishers B.V. All rights reserved /91/$03.50 BPROC Seasonal variation in Stereotypie paing in an Amerian blak bear Ursus amerianus Kathy Carlstead and John Seidenstiker National Zoologial Park, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA (Aepted 3 July 1991) Abstrat The behaviour of a male Amerian blak bear Ursus amerianus was observed for over 2400 h aross all seasons of the year. Stereotypie paing was most frequent, oriented away from the exhibit, and performed mainly after feeding during the period May-July; from August-November paing was oriented towards the exhibit and performed mainly around feeding time. Plaing bear odors in the enlosure slightly redued paing and inreased exploring/foraging in the late spring. Hiding small food items in the exhibit almost ompletely eliminated paing in the fall and replaed it with foraging. Comparison with seasonal hanges in the behaviour of wild bears suggest that the stereotypy of this bear, and probably zoo bears in general, developed from two main primary behaviours that annot be performed in a barren zoo environment: mate-seeking behaviour predominating in the late spring and foraging behaviour in the late summer and fall. Introdution Stereotypy is a ommon problem in zoo-housed bears (Holzapfel, 1938; Boorer, 1872; van Keulen-Kromhout, 1978; Horseman, 1986) inspite of a trend in modern zoos towards naturalisti exhibits. Spae restrition, improper exhibit design and/or boredom are offered as auses (Hediger, 1950; Boorer, 1972; Law & Boyle, 1986; Stevenson, 1983), but there have been virtually no quantitative studies on stereotypy in non-primate zoo animals sine the Meyer-Holzapfel studies (1968; Holzapfel, 1938, 1939). Stereotypy may be the idiosynrati expression of some primary behaviour that is prevented from being funtionally ompleted by onfinement in an unstimulating environment. The National Zoologial Correspondene to: K. Carlstead, National Zoologial Park, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20008, USA. ^ '

2 156 Park exhibited an Amerian blak bear Ursus amerianus with a onsistent and frequent paing stereotypy. It onsisted of 15 steps in one diretion and a 3-point turn to reverse, performed repetitively along a ledge at the front of the exhibit. A bak and forth yle took s to omplete, in bouts of 1-90 min. The purpose of this investigation is to develop an hypothesis on the ausation of Stereotypie paing in zoo bears through a detailed analysis of variation in this one individual's paing behaviour in relation to seasonal and physial hanges in his external environment. Observational and experimental evidene, based on 2400 h of video reordings, is provided in support of the hypothesis that there are two main soure behaviours of paing ourring predominantly at different times of the year: mate-seeking behaviour during the late spring/early summer months, and foraging in the late summer and fall. Materials and Methods The 18-year old, wild-aught male Amerian blak bear ("Smokey"), was housed in a 68 m^, oval-shaped, onrete and rok, dry-moated enlosure at the National Zoologial Park sine he was 18 months old. The enlosure ontained an oval-shaped pool (3.7 m X 2.4 m X 1.5 m), a wooden denning hut (1.2 m X 1.8 m X 1 m) filled with straw, 2-6 hollowed out logs (±1 m in length), several large, loose stones, a 12 m^ holding area, and an inoperable gunnite food dispenser tree. very morning at approximately 0930 h the bear was normally fed in the holding area a diet of kg of Nebraska Brand feline diet, 700 g Spetrum omnivore how, 2-6 apples and oranges, and one loaf of bread. Snaks of raisins, fruit, peanuts, or additional omnivore how were given in the afternoon in the holding area. Behavioural observations All observations were arried out via a low-light CCTV video amera and time-lapse reorder, exept in 1990 when diret observations were made by volunteers. Time of day and duration of the following behaviours were registered: Stereotypie paing, walking around, exploring/foraging (walking or standing with nose to the ground), resting or sleeping, rubbing body against wall, in moat, in holding area. For a given bout of paing the predominant diretion of the turns was also noted. There were 3 onditions under whih the bear's behaviour was observed for an entire day: (1) "ontrol" days with normal husbandry proedures, (2) "food-hiding" days when, at 0930 h, the non-meat portion of the diet was sattered or onealed throughout the exhibit under objets and mixed in with straw, and (3) "bear odor" days when, at 0930 h, objets permeated with a bear sent where plaed at various points in the exhibit. The odors onsisted of: anal gland seretions from a male panda Ailuropoda melanoleua, logs previously hewed on by a female brown bear, spetaled bears Tremartos ornatus, and a male sloth bear Melursus ursinus. sats from wild blak bears, hair lippings and vulval rubbings on a paper towel from a wild female blak bear, sloth bear hair, sign posts hewed on and marked by wild blak bears, and ommerially available hunting lures reputed to be made of male or female blak bear urine (Robbins Sents, Connellsville, PA,

3 157 TABL 1 Sequenes of behaviour observations. Year Observation h/day Number, type and order of observation days period (, ontrol; fh, food-hiding; bo, bear odor days) * 1987 Apr-Nov 24 9/month 1988 May-)ul fh-3-11bo Aug-Nov 13 4fh-7-10fh-3-13fh 9-7fh May-Jun fh-3-8bo * Days of no observations and normal husbandry proedures were interspersed within and between, s, and bo onditions throughout a given observation period. USA). ah day a sent different from that used the previous day was plaed in the exhibit, although several of the odors were used more than one. Observations were arried out in the sequenes desribed in Table 1. Comparisons of daily behaviour frequenies between the months of 1987 and between food-hiding, bear odor and ontrol days were arried out using Mann Whitney U-tests or Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variane with post-ho multiple omparisons (Dunn, 1964, in Hollander & Wolfe, 1973). Results The bear was only ative from April to mid Deember; during the winter months he dennned in the wooden hut or holding area. In the summer of 1987 the bear was never observed to be ative past 2200 h; generally he settled in to sleep at dusk throughout the year. A signifiant pattern of seasonal variation in the frequeny and morphology of Stereotypie paing was found. The mean number of minutes/day spent paing from April to November, 1987 is given in Fig. 1. Paing frequeny is signifiantly higher in May and June than in other months (H = 29.77, N = 72 days, p < ; May > Apr, Aug, Sep, a ZS inward turns outward turns CO o 0) april may june July aug sept ot nov Fig. 1. Mean minutes/day spent paing during the months the bear was not denning. Inward and outward turns refer to the orientation of the movement pattern with respet to the exhibit as diretion is reversed. Asterisk = p < 0.05 for post-ho omparisons (see text).

4 T a) Moy July b) August November O) i' O o \ o V ster paing explore/ forage 11 J ster paing explore/ forage i ontrol days ^3 food hiding days ^3 beor odor days Fig. 2. Mean minutes/hour spent paing in the a) late spring or b) late summer/fall on ontrol, food-hiding, and bear odor days. Asterisk indiates signifiant differenes In post-ho omparisons (a) or Mann-Whitney U-test (b). Ot; Jun > Apr, Aug, Sep). These are the only months in whih the bear was observed to rub his body against the rok wall of his enlosure. Bouts of paing in May, June and July were on average twie as long as bouts the rest of the year (May-Jul mean min/bout ± sem = 15.4 ± 0.48, Aug-Nov = 7.26 ± 0.16). In addition, paing was found to our in two prinipal forms. The bear ould reverse his diretion of movement by turning either inwards towards the exhibit yard and keeper area, or outwards towards the neighboring female brown bear exhibit, the publi viewing area, and a forested area beyond. The proportion of the time spent paing in whih the turns were outward was high in May, June and the first half of July, but at other times of year turns were mostly inwards (Fig. 1 ). Finally, during the period May-July, paing ourred mostly after feeding time in the afternoon and evening hours, whereas from August to November, paing was most frequent in the morning before feeding time. During the period May-July (1988 and 1990) both providing novel bear odors and hiding food in the yard slightly but signifiantly redued Stereotypie paing, as ompared to ontrol days (H = 9.48, N = 55, p < 0.008; food-hiding days > ontrol days; bear odor days > ontrol days, Fig. 2a). xploring/foraging was signifiantly inreased on bear odor days as ompared to ontrol and food hiding days (H = 17.7, p < , Fig. 2a). In the period August-November (1988), sattering and hiding food throughout the yard pratially eliminated Stereotypie paing (U = 23.5, n = 34, 27, p < , Fig. 2b). xploring/ Foraging was signifiantly inreased (U = 34.5, p< , Fig. 2b). Analysis of the temporal pattern of paing and foraging indiated that foraging oured in plae of paing throughout the day even though most of the food was retrieved in the first two hours after food was hidden in the yard. Furthermore, after 34 days of hiding food in essentially the same plae over a 4 month period, the stereotypy-reduing effet was not in the least diminished, indiating that the novelty of finding food in the yard was probably not the ause of this effet. Disussion The behaviour of this Amerian blak bear is highly dependent on the time of year, as is the ase for wild blak bears. The primary behaviours for Stereotypie paing may be

5 inferred by omparison with the seasonal habits of free-ranging bears. The physiology and behaviour of blak bears is highly adapted to a seasonally hanging food supply. Blak bears den in the winter when food is not available. The breeding season is in June and July, at whih time males travel through their home ranges, assoiating with females for from a few hours up to 5 days, and interating with ompeting males (Barber and Lindzey, 1985). They mark trees with their laws or rub them with their bodies, perhaps as olfatory signals to other bears (Rogers, 1977; Burst and Pelton, 1983), and serum testosterone levels are elevated (Palmer et al., 1988). In the later summer and fall when food is abundant, blak bears beome obese beause of hyperphagia, aquiring the energy reserves required for denning through the winter. Blak bear foods are small, partiuiate, numerous and pathily distributed, requiring extensive time to ollet and to onsume; they spend up to 18 hr/day foraging for insets, roots, orms, fruit and small animal prey (agle and Pelton, 1983). For the National Zoo's blak bear, the high frequeny of post-feeding stereotypy during the natural breeding season of wild bears, oupled with an orientation outwards from the exhibit, provides support for the hypothesis that the primary behaviour of paing May-July is home-range patrolling for soial signals from potential mates or ompetitors. Providing odors from other bears in the exhibit redued stereotypy and inreased exploration of the yard. Olfatory stimuli are thus suffiient to distrat the bear from paing during the breeding season, possibly beause they are appropriate releasing stimuli for the primary behaviour of the stereotypy. On the other hand, the novelty of the smells may also aount for the distration from paing. Unfortunately, the effets of bear odors outside of the breeding season ould not be investigated, as planned for the fall of 1990, due to the death of the bear. In the late summer and fall period, stereotypy performed around feeding time and orientation towards the diretion from whih the keeper approahes to feed, leads to the onlusion that the primary behaviour the bear is prevented from performing is foraging. Providing the opportunity to manipulate objets to retrieve numerous small food items in the enlosure almost eliminated paing and replaed it with foraging behaviour, indiating that the stereotypy was not emanipated from its original ausal fators. A stereotypy-reduing effet of food-hiding was also observed during the breeding season, but without a onomittant inrease in exploring/foraging. In other bear speies, frequent and varied feeding shemes in whih the bears had to retrieve food or beg for it have also been anedotally reported to redue or be negatively orrelated with stereotypy (polar bears Ursus artos; Markowitz, 1978; Law & Boyle, 1986; van Keulen Kromhout, 1978). In an earlier experiment, it was shown that food snaks delivered automatially 6 times/day from a mehanial feeder devie requiring no objet manipulation for food retrieval, did not redue this bear's paing behaviour in the fall (Carlstead et al., 1991). videne for a behavioural need or preferene to perform foraging and feeding behaviours has been reported in a number of different speies (raoons, pigs, hikens, Breland and Breland, 1961; rats Carder and Berkowitz, 1970; rats and humans, Singh, 1970), and this has led to the observation that appetitive behaviours in some speies may be self-reinforing (Wiepkema, 1985; Dantzer, 1986; Hughes and Dunan, 1989). When the environment does not allow the appropriate funtional onsequenes to be assoiated with the appetitive behaviour, the latter beomes internally ontrolled, repetitive and persistent. Bears represent, perhaps, an extreme example of an animal "hardwired" to forage beause of their large energy needs and seasonally variable food soures. In many aptive environments with only one daily feeding of onentrated foods, the behavioural need to forage 159

6 160 goes unmet and thus the high inidene of stereotypies in zoo bears (Carlstead et al., 1991). In suh ases feeding methodology should be hanged and exhibit spaes enrihed with manipulatibie objets and substrate for hiding food. Aknowledgements This researh was supported by the National Zoologial Park, Smithsonian Institution, and grants from Friends of the National Zoo, Smithsonian Women's Committee, and the James Smithson Soiety. We would like to thank NZP's bear keepers and the many volunteers for their input, ooperation and time on this projet. Referenes Barber, K.R., and Lindzey, F.G., Breeding behavior of blak bears. Int. Conf. Bear Res. and Manage. 6: Boorer, M., Some aspets of stereotyped patterns of movement exhibited by zoo animals. Internat. Zoo Yrbk. 12: Breland, K., and Breland, M., The misbehavior of organisms. Am. J. Psyhol. 16: Burst, T.L., and Pelton, M.R., Blak bear mark trees in the Smoky Mountains. Int. Conf. Bear Res. and Manage. 5: Carder, B. and Kerkowitz, K., Rats' preferene for earned In omparison with free food Siene 167: Carlstead, K., Seidenstiker, J., and Baldwin, R., nvironmental enrihment for zoo bears Zoo Biol. 10: Dantzer, R., Behavioral, physiologial and funtional aspets of stereotyped behaviour: a review and a re-interpretation. J. Anim. Sei. 62: agle, T.C.; and Pelton, M.R., Seasonal nutrition of blak bears in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Int. Conf. on Bear Res. and Manage. 5: Hediger, H., Wild Animals in Captivity. An outline of the biology of zoologial gardens. Dover Publiations, New York, NY. Hollander, M. and Wolf, D.A., Nonparametri Statistial Methods. John Wiley and Sons New York, NY. Holzapfel, M., Über Bewegungssteretoypien bei gehaltenen Saugern. I. Mitt. Bewegungsstereotypien bei Caniden und Hyaena. Z. Tierpsyhol. 2: Holzapfel, M., Die ntstehung einiger Bewegungstereotypien bei gehaltenen Saugern und Vögeln. Rev. Suisse de Zool. 46: Horseman, P., Captive polar bears in the U.K. and Ireland. Zoohek, Cherry Tree Cottage, Coldharbour, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 6HA, ngland. Hughes, B.O. and I.J.H. Dunan, The notion of ethologial 'need', models of motivation and animal welfare. Anim. Behav. 36, van Keulen-Kromhout, C, Zoo enlosures for bears: their influene on aptive behavior and reprodution. Internat. Zoo Yrbk. 18: Law, G. and Boyle, H., Notes on polar bear management at Glasgow Zoo. Ratel: 13: Markowitz, H., ngineering environments for behavioral opportunity in the zoo. Behav. Analyst, 2: Meyer-Holzapfel, M., 1968 Abnormal behavior in zoo animals. In "Abnormal Behavior in Animals", M.W. Fox, ed. W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, PA, pp

7 Palmer, S.S., Nelson, R.A., Ramsay, M.A., Stirling, I., and Bahr, J.M., Annual hanges in serum sex steroids in male and female blak (Ursus amerianus) and polar (Ursus maritimus) bears. Biol. Reprod. 38: Rogers, L.L., Soial relationships, movements and population dynamis of blak bears in northeastern Minnesota. Ph.D Diss. Univ. Minnesota, Menneapolis. 194 pp. Singh, D., Preferene for bar pressing to obtain reward over freeloading in rats and hildren. J. Comp. Physiol. Psyho!. 73: Stevenson, M.F., The aptive environment: its effet on exploratory and related behavioural responses in wild animals. In "xploration in Animals and Man", J. Arher and L. Birke, eds. Van Nostrand Rheinhold, U.K. pp Wiepkema, P.R., Abnormal behaviours in farm animals: ethologial impliations. Neth J Zool 35: