The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland's Approach to Assessing and Promoting Animal Welfare in Collaboration with Universities

Good zoos have four aims-to conserve species, educate the public, engage in research, and provide recreation-all of which can only be achieved when underpinned by high animal welfare standards. In this paper, we share the approach that The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland's (RZSS) Edinburgh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animals (Basel) 2024-07, Vol.14 (15), p.2223
Main Authors: Gandia, Kristine M, Elliott, Jo, Girling, Simon, Kessler, Sharon E, Buchanan-Smith, Hannah M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affect (Psychology)
Animal behavior
Animal culture
Animal welfare
animal welfare assessment
Aquariums
Behavior
Collaboration
five domains
Freedoms
Perceptions
positive welfare
Trade and professional associations
United Kingdom
Universities and colleges
Wildlife conservation
zoo
Zoos
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Summary:Good zoos have four aims-to conserve species, educate the public, engage in research, and provide recreation-all of which can only be achieved when underpinned by high animal welfare standards. In this paper, we share the approach that The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland's (RZSS) Edinburgh Zoo and Highland Wildlife Park take to animal welfare. We highlight the role that animal welfare research, in collaboration with universities, has had in enabling the zoo to take an evidence-based approach to welfare and to put findings into practice. We share the collaborative process through which we developed and piloted the current animal welfare assessment tools, how they were validated, and how they were tested for reliability as part of a long-term collaboration between the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and the University of Stirling: (1) the RZSS Welfare Assessment Tool, a 50-question animal welfare assessment adapted from the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) Toolkit; and (2) the Stirling Toolkit, a package of evidence-based resources for behavioural-data collection. Our aim is to facilitate standardised, evidence-based approaches to assessing animal welfare which, when finalised, can be used collaboratively across zoos.
ISSN:2076-2615
2076-2615
DOI:10.3390/ani14152223