Abstract

The welfare of ambassador animals – zoo animals that have direct contact with the public as part of education programs – is a priority issue, since these animals are potentially exposed to more stressors than exhibited animals. This study investigated if education programs generated more stress in eight ambassador species at the Zoo de Granby and the Ecomuseum Zoo in Québec, Canada. We compared activity treatments involving handling and/or transport to a baseline treatment without programmed activities and used fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) levels and activity budgets to measure physiological and behavioral stress, respectively. Overall, we found in camels (Camelus bactrianus) and opossums (Monodelphis domestica) that animal rides and zoo workshops, respectively, had higher FGM levels exceeding the baseline thresholds. The FGM levels varied depending on the ambassador’s total participation in programmed activities, so less used animals experienced acute stress sooner than most used ones. Undesirable behaviors, such as pacing and interaction with transparent boundaries, in some camels, armadillos, skinks, and pythons represented over 10 % of an individual’s activity budget, but the species’ mean did not exceed the threshold. Finally, the activity treatments significantly affected resting behaviors in birds, reptiles, and camelids without changing the activity rate between treatments. Overall, education programs did not significantly affect ambassadors’ welfare, but targeted individuals among the species were stressed. Our findings will benefit the zoological community for example, by providing baseline FGM levels for each ambassador species and contribute to improving the understanding of repetitive and stereotyped behaviors across multiple species.