Captive giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) mostly do not attain the longevity possible for this species and frequently have problems associated with low energy intake and fat storage mobilization. Abnormal tooth wear has been among the causes suggested as an underlying problem. This study utilizes a tooth wear scoring method ("mesowear") primarily used in paleobiology. This scoring method was app...

The physical environments of captive and wild animals frequently differ in substrate types and compliance. As a result, there is an assumption that differences in rearing environments between captive and wild individuals produce differences in skeletal morphology. Here, this hypothesis is tested using a sample of 42 captive and wild common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Articular surface areas ...

The Ryman-Laikre (R-L) effect is an increase in inbreeding and a reduction in total effective population size (NeT ) in a combined captive-wild system, which arises when a few captive parents produce large numbers of offspring. To facilitate evaluation of the R-L effect for scenarios that are relevant to marine stock enhancement and aquaculture, we extended the original R-L formula to explicitl...

Supplementation of wild populations with captive-bred organisms is a common practice for conservation of threatened wild populations. Yet it is largely unknown whether such programmes actually help population size recovery. While a negative genetic effect of captive breeding that decreases fitness of captive-bred organisms has been detected, there is no direct evidence for a carry-over effect o...

I assessed the reproductive patterns of captive-born and wild-caught Asian elephants managed by the Myanmar Timber Enterprise. Calving among all female elephants was seasonal with higher births in cool months (October to February) and late monsoon (September). Captive-born mothers have significantly higher fecundity rates with lower inter-birth intervals than wild-caught mothers, likely due to ...

Housing captive primates in environments representative of their wild habitat in many cases can be challenging. Captive white-handed gibbons can be housed in a caged environment or on an island surrounded by a moat. It has been hypothesized that the quality of the captive environment can affect gibbon behavior, as expressed in (or by) their activity budgets. The researcher observed the activity...

Lion (Panthera leo) populations have dramatically decreased worldwide with a surviving population estimated at 32,000 across the African savannah. Lions have been kept in captivity for centuries and, although they reproduce well, high rates of stillbirths as well as morbidity and mortality of neonate and young lions are reported. Many of these cases are associated with bone malformations, inclu...

The gastrointestinal microbiota plays a fundamental role in health and disease. Only limited data are available about the composition of the intestinal microbiota of captive animals compared to those of wild animals. The aim of the present study was to characterize the cloacal microbiota of apparently healthy wild and captive parrots. A total of 16 parrots, 8 wild and 8 captive, belonging to 3 ...

Chemical cues can alert prey to the presence of predators before predator is within visual proximity. Recognition a predator’s scent therefore an important component awareness. We presented and control scents wild, wild-born captive, predator-naive captive-born pygmy bluetongue lizards determine (1) whether respond reptile chemical differently from controls, (2) captive more strongly known than...