Does enrichment improve reptile welfare? Leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius) respond to five types of environmental enrichment

• Published in: Applied animal behaviour science 2016-11, Vol.184, p.150-160
• Main Authors: Bashaw, Meredith J., Gibson, Mallory D., Schowe, Devan M., Kucher, Abigail S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Captivity; Eublepharis macularius; Exploration; Gentle handling; Lizard; Squamata; Welfare
• ISSN: 0168-1591; 1872-9045
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2016.08.003

•Enrichment improves animal welfare, but reptile enrichment has been rarely studied.•We measured leopard geckos’ responses to five enrichment types.•Geckos responded like carnivorous mammals, except for abnormal repetitive behaviors.•All enrichment types except provision of a mirror improved gecko welfare.•Captive geckos and other reptiles benefit from increased behavioral opportunities. Animal welfare is a high priority for pet owners and accredited zoos and aquariums. Current approaches to measuring welfare focus on identifying consensus among behavioral and physiological indicators of positive and negative emotions. Environmental enrichment is a common strategy used to improve the welfare of captive animals. In enrichment programs, knowledge of an animal’s ecology and individual history are applied to modify the animal’s current environment and management to increase environmental complexity, make the environment more functional or natural, and increase behavioral opportunities. While enrichment techniques for primates and large mammals are well-studied, reptile enrichment has received little attention to date despite a few promising studies. In this study, we monitored the responses of 16 leopard geckos to five types of enrichment (Thermal, Feeding, Olfactory, Object, and Visual) using a repeated-measures design. We measured both specific behaviors we expected to change in response to each enrichment type and four behavioral indicators of welfare: exploratory behavior, species-specific behaviors (behavioral thermoregulation and hunting), behavioral diversity, and abnormal repetitive behaviors. We found geckos interacted with all five types of enrichment at above-chance levels (i.e., no 95% CIs for engagement time overlapped with 0s). Geckos spent more time interacting with Thermal and Feeding enrichment than the other types (F(4,60)=49.84, p