Abstract

There have been an increasing number of research projects on zoo animal welfare in the past decades. However, these studies all tend to use the same species (mainly great apes) as subjects. In this thesis, we analyzed the effect of visitor presence and enclosure design on the activity budget and space use of the Japanese macaques at the Zoo de Granby, Granby, QC. In addition, we quantified the shift in the female dominance hierarchy that occurred when members of the two original groups of macaques, observed in the old enclosure in 2014, were merged to form one group in 2015, to later be introduced to a new enclosure. The results suggest that visitor presence may have had a small impact on the activity budget and space use, but its effect on welfare not apparent and trends were not consistent between or within groups. The macaques’ behaviour and space use patterns suggested habituation to the new enclosure, but did not clearly indicate an increase in welfare compared to the old enclosure. It is likely that the changes in hierarchy confounded the effects of the new habitat. Individuals’ ranks changed significantly between groups, and again midway through the 2015 field season. There was evidence that age was an important factor in determining the new rank of an individual, but the order in which the individual was added to the group was not. It is clear from this thesis that both visitor effect and enclosure changes are multifaceted topics which require continued research.