Effects Of Enrichment On The Behavior Of Captive Blue Sheep

From April 2017 to December 2017,5 captive female blue sheep(Pseudois nayaur)in Shanghai Zoo were reported,which were influenced by environmental enrichment,feeding enrichment and odor enrichment.The aim of the enrichment experiment is to describe the behavioral spectrum of captive blue sheep,to analyze the effect of different enrichment experiment on blue sheep daytime activity budget and daytime activity rhythm.The results showed as follows:1.After experiment of enrichmental enrichment,the behavior of motion and ruminaet significantly increased(P=0.003;P=0.000),the behavior of rest and others significantly decreased(P=0.000),and variation of feeding behavior was not significant(P=0.225).Two peaks of feeding behavior of blue sheep were recorded at 8:00-11:00 and 15:00-18:00,but the peak of feeding behavior after enrichment was higher than before enrichment respectively.There were similar fluctuations in behavior of motion and feeding.The proportion of time for feeding behavior after enrichment was higher than that before enrichment.The fluctuations of behavior of rest and feeding exactly were opposite.After the enrichment,the ruminate behavior respectively showed two apparent peaks,which were similar fluctuation in behavior of rest,at 6:00-9:30 and 10:30-14:30.2.After experiment of feeding enrichment,motion behavior significantly decreased(P=0.018),feeding behavior increased significantly(P=0.020).Ruminate behavior and other behaviors increased significantly(P=0.038;P=0.010),and rest behavior decreased,but the change was not obvious(P=0.260).Before and after enrichment there were similar fluctuations in behavior of rest feeding,motion,and ruminate of blue sheep.Two peaks of motion behavior of blue sheep were recorded at 7:30?9:30 and 13:30-18:00,but there was a little fall back around at 15:30.motion behavior and feeding behavior or rest behavior and ruminate behavior had similar fluctuations.There were also two peaks in the rest behavior,which were at 6:00-9:30 and 9:30-14:30,there was a little fall back at 15:30,but the fluctuations of behavior of rest and motion were opposite.3.In the stage of odor enrichment,captive blue sheep were not sensitive to three odors and couldn't cause the vigilant response by putting in feces of wolf,red deer and leopard,the expression of each behavior was not abnormal.the time of walk behavior and standing behavior was relatively high,and standing behavior was slightly decreased,but not significant(P>0.05).The time percentage of behavior of run,chasing,defecation,howling and alertness was relatively low,and the variation of their values was not significant(P>0.05).