Care for the Rare

03/23/2024

Which of these species do you think has the most similar welfare priorities to African lions and why?!

03/23/2024

It was great to spend a couple of days back at Tierart as construction ramps up, and a potentially monumental stride in wild animal welfare unfolds! This project distils the insights of dozens of tiger experts from around the world mediated through the AWPIS process - uniting science and compassion, challenging prevailing norms that appear resigned to accept the pacing of captive tigers as inevitable.

Working with Four Paws and the Open University’s Department of Animal Computer Interaction, we are on the cusp of unveiling an initiative that promises to revolutionise how we care for the welfare of captive tigers. Our decade-long research suggests that traditional enrichment paradigms may actually compound stress, whereas the need for tigers to navigate and travel through complex landscapes with purpose may be central to their welfare needs.

At Tierart Sanctuary, Germany, and our technical development labs at the Open University, we're crafting a habitat that is nothing short of revolutionary. It’s a dynamic, living ecosystem, designed to adapt to the choices of tigers, allowing them to embark on meaningful journeys akin to those they’d undertake in the wild. This interactive, living landscape is a convergence of advanced technologies, "zoo-design", welfare science and behavioural ecology, aimed at restoring autonomy for captive tigers fostering species appropriate behavioural and cognitive opportunities, and enabling them to travel substantive distances through diverse landscapes in pursuit of their chosen objectives—just as they would in nature.

Stay tuned as we prepare to share more about this groundbreaking project that is set to redefine what is possible in the care of tigers; a species whose captive population, tragically far exceeds the numbers left in the wild.

03/23/2024

The more we learn about the natural world, the less exceptional we seem; tool use, culture including art (bower birds), friendship, dialects, recreational s*x, ritual and grief to name but a few are characteristics that were once assumed to have been uniquely human by many. I hope this growing body of knowledge helps contribute to a greater sense of responsibility towards the natural world.

https://buff.ly/4a4DjlX

Five elephant calves have been found buried in drainage ditches on tea-growing estates in India in a rare example of burial behaviour in non-human animals

03/23/2024

One of nicest compliments I ever had for any paper was from the late and much missed Peter Dickinson (Zoo News Digest), who in his last email to me described this paper as compulsory reading for zoo professionals! It’s nice to see a reasonable proportion of my zoo colleagues might have taken his advice! If you fancy taking Peter’s advice - here’s the link!
https://buff.ly/3VxqXyC

03/23/2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZh70oxA1e8

A ground-breaking research project sponsored by Yorkshire Wildlife Park is set to improve the lives and welfare of polar bears and help secure their future i...

03/23/2024

When it comes to animal welfare, evidence matters. Find out how we can help your teams get the information they need, and in a format that is both actionable and understandable, to enhance welfare focused decision-making, facility design, planning, prioritisation, and performance management.

Learn more about Care for the Rare's whole facility animal welfare assessment tools; Animal Welfare Fingerpints and HeatMapping.

03/23/2024

When it comes to the design of wild animal habitats, the cookie cutter / replication approach can feel like the path of least risk and least resistance, but its also the path of least long term gain. Disruptive innovation takes time, vision, teamwork and above all, courage. I had no idea what we were planning was the most complex interaction ever devised between animals and their environment mediated by technology until that was pointed out to me by the team at the Animal Computer Interaction Lab! The courage, teamwork, and commitment to a shared vision by Four Paws and the Open University in joining Care for the Rare on this journey will I'm sure help establish a new gold standard for wild animal care that all can benefit from! It just takes time.


https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7154770899357855744

12/28/2023

We think leaders of zoos, aquariums, wildlife parks, and sanctuaries are not getting the information they need to understand the welfare status of their facilities - learn how our Animal Welfare Fingerprinting tool could change that.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/directors-we-asking-right-questions-zoo-aquarium-sanctuary-7azic/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&utm_campaign=share_via&fbclid=IwAR2VCvyUsn8khZWSzUNbo-VlUYdYsl85Lunk2z0wvWVEEn9E2U7xL3LG41o

08/11/2023

Information Request - Opportunity to Elevate Zoo Animal Welfare through Data Discovery. Space is widely perceived to be one of the biggest, and perhaps most insurmountable issues in terms of captive animal welfare, but what is it about space that matters?

Our research has led us to focus on the issue of intentional travel, and as part of our continuing work in this area, we are seeking data on daily travel distances in captivity across a range of species.

We know captive animals rarely range as far as their wild counterparts, but what is less clear, is whether they locomote (walk, swim, brachiate, fly etc) as far each day in captivity as they do in the wild. We know for example, that surprisingly, despite significant habitat compression, some captive elephants and tigers might walk as far each day as their wild counterparts, though for tigers, much of this is in the form of pacing.

The reason this data is critical in establishing welfare optimising solutions is it helps us determine what it is about captivity that impacts this important component of the lives of animals – our research suggests it’s not the biomechanics of travel that captivity typically limits, but rather the cognitive and behavioural opportunities directly associated with travel in the wild that tend to be lacking, but we need more data to help clarify this point across a range of species.

Unfortunately, for most species, information on daily travel distance in captivity is lacking in the published literature. However, it’s possible, this information can be extracted from previous research or data you might have access to. For example, you might have activity budgets, studies on pacing, or even data from activity monitoring devices from which we can estimate travel distances in captive wild animals based on species typical travel speeds.

If you think you have might have this information, or be aware of sources, regardless of the species, please reach out. Also, if you are a student, or have students looking to undertake useful research at your zoo, please reach out to us and we’ll provide some guidance on how to gather the information.
Whilst we are interested in data on all species, we are particularly keen to gather information on Sumatran and Amur tigers, Orangutan, polar bears and African lions.

Please re-share this post with anyone you think might be able to help, and if you think you might be able to contribute data to this important work directly, connect with us on [email protected], with Daily Travel Distance marked as the subject.

Thanks for your interest and support!


https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7095800202321678336

06/21/2023

If you are interested, or are involved in some way with African lions, watch this space! Its time to start rethinking how we manage lions in zoos, sanctuaries, wildlife parks and even fenced nature reserves!

This week, its off to South Africa for another project at Lions Rock in the Eastern Free State! With well over 100 big cats at Lions Rock alone, and…

06/18/2023

https://www.carefortherare.com/news/what-koalas-can-teach-us-about-the-current-state-of-zoo-design
What can koalas teach us about the current state of zoo design?

05/08/2023

https://www.carefortherare.com/news/why-the-missing-ingredient-to-improving-animal-welfare%2C-is-so-often-understanding-what-really-matters-to-animals

Unlocking the secrets to animal welfare - Care for the Rare sheds light on what really matters

05/04/2023

We are inviting individuals with at least three year’s experience working with orangutan as well as scientists who have published research into the behaviour, ecology and welfare of the species, to join experts from around the world to participate in a unique undertaking to help improve our understanding of the needs of this species in managed environments.

The assessment process is premised on the belief that if we truly understood the value of the opportunities orangutan encounter in the wild to their welfare in captivity, it could transform how we care for them, including how we design their habitats.

The assessment will quantify the relative importance of natural behavioural and cognitive opportunities to orangutan welfare by harnessing the collective knowledge of a range of experts using a variant on the Delphi technique. Details of previous assessments can be found on our website’s publications page.

This unique project is generously sponsored by Zoos Victoria, with additional support from Auckland Zoo. Stakeholders of the Zoo and Aquarium (Australasia) Species Management Program for Orangutan also support this project. The contribution of a wide range of experts is vital, and it is hoped, will benefit orangutan around the world for decades to come.

The assessment will be launched on or around the 29th May 2023 with an virtual workshop that will be recorded and available online for those who cannot attend the live session. This will provide the background necessary to undertake the assessment, which will also be online, and will be open for approximately four weeks.

If you are interested in participating please contact Kathleen Armstrong at Zoos Victoria on [email protected] and you will be forwarded further details including an invite to the workshop in due course.

04/30/2023

Just finished a fantastic few days at Four Paw's Tierart Sanctuary in Germany. During the visit, we took time out with a documentary team from the Swedish national broadcaster to discuss the status and future of zoos; I gave my personal views on the future of wild animal care and facility design, and tried to make the case that welfare needs to be the foundation of zoo based conservation, not something that is unnecessarily traded for conservation impacts. In addition to discussing our ongoing collaboration with Four Paws to deliver what will be the most advanced (and fundamentally different) welfare enhancing habitats for tigers at Tierart, we discussed further collaborations on projects across the Four Paws sanctuary network. We've already collaborated on numerous development projects over the years in Ukraine, Germany, Switzerland and Vietnam, but we are looking to expand that collaboration, undertaking welfare priority assessments for African lions, development work at Lion's Rock in South Africa and a number of other projects around the world. We also got to discuss the science behind our new approach with the entire sanctuary network in a virtual sanctuary managers meeting. Four Paws is such an inspiring team to work with, not only are they rescuing animals and tackling policy and education issues around the world, they are also willing to push the boundaries of conventional best practise and consider fundamentally different, evidence-based approaches to facility design and management, and that is something we find particularly exciting, and unfortunately, surprisingly rare!

04/01/2023

Here is a sneak-peek render, of a tiny corner of a tiger habitat currently in development that we are designing in Germany. There's a lot more to this innovative space than meets the eye, and there are some very good reasons why it looks more like the forests of Sumatra or the Sundarbans than any zoo space you’ll have seen before, and it has nothing to do with aesthetics!

Embedded within this habitat will be an ecosystem of truly ground-breaking technologies designed to replicate the functional complexity of the wild; allowing tigers to interact with a dynamic landscape, empowering them to make meaningful choices, and seek biologically relevant opportunities that are subject to natural contingencies, including travel.

The habitat will also be engineered to monitor the physical and psychological wellbeing of the animals in an entirely non-invasive way, giving unparalleled insights into the day-to-day welfare of the tigers.

This project is a result of a long-term collaboration between animal welfare NGO’s, field biologists, welfare and computer scientists and zoos and has its foundation firmly grounded in the latest scientific understanding of the needs of wide-ranging animals generally, and tigers specifically.

To find out more how Care for the Rare can work with you to help solve the challenges of wild animals in managed environments, and especially wide-ranging species from elephants to orangutan, and polar bears to lions, please feel free to get in touch at [email protected]

03/11/2023

For anyone who thinks animal welfare and conservation are two separate issues, look at this photo and think again. All conservation challenges involve suffering, and no conservation organisation can effectively advocate for species without taking care of individuals. That's why Care for the Rare focuses specifically on the interface between animal welfare and conservation. https://www.internationaltigerproject.org/donate/?referal_source=FBADITP022023&fbclid=IwAR2hUsURqyNqFI0plgkcskerq5Ut6vEnX0EQayhEcwvADO8tAp-iNm6UdDk

It’s hard to imagine which would hurt more - the torn flesh, the fractured bone or the anguish of knowing you couldn’t reach your two young cubs; alone, hungry and unprotected.

03/02/2023

Do animals matter in a crisis? I think they do and here’s why.

It's now been a year since Russia invaded Ukraine. This conflict, like all others, along with natural disasters and other catastrophic events, are, above all else, human tragedies.

02/21/2023

https://fb.watch/iQYe4FMlsK/
Few years ago now..., but so much has changed for the better in Vietnam for elephants with government intervening to phase out elephant rides.