| Zoo staff are very busy people and respond to researcher queries on top of their normal day to day activities. Therefore it is only courteous and of benefit to the project if some background research has been done in advance and the zoo is not the first port of call for information. Below are a list of the most common research areas or topics and relevant information sources. |
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| First and foremost, all researchers should read Zoo Research Guidelines: Project Planning and Behavioural Observations, whatever kind of research might be undertaken. The guidelines take researchers through the steps of formulating the research question, developing the research design, analysing and interpreting the data collected and compiling the project report. |
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| Other guidelines in the series will also be essential reading from many projects. Each set of guidelines has a section for further references. |
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| 1 |
Ethics |
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13 |
Effects of zoo visitors on animal behaviour |
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| 2 |
Legislation that applies to zoos |
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14 |
Enclosure design |
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| 3 |
Information on which zoos hold a certain species |
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15 |
Small sample sizes |
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| 4 |
Use of Zoo records |
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16 |
Samples from the animals themselves |
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| 5 |
Tigers are not the only animals! |
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17 |
Husbandry guidelines |
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| 6 |
Zoos and Conservation |
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18 |
Questionnaires |
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| 7 |
Studbooks |
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19 |
Finding and Obtaining references |
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| 8 |
Studbooks and Conservation |
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20 |
Multi Zoo research |
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| 9 |
Behavioural studies and profiling |
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21 |
Funding |
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| 10 |
Enrichment |
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22 |
Publications |
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| 11 |
Stress |
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23 |
Acknowledgements |
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| 12 |
Nutrition |
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24 |
Say thank you!!! |
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| 1) Ethics |
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| Zoos and aquariums must balance the welfare of individuals against the conservation of species or ecosystems when assessing potential projects. To this end zoos should have an ethical review process (see Zoos Forum Handbook ). BIAZA has an Animal Transfer Policy outlining ethical accessioning and disposition of animals that all members sign up to when becoming members. |
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| WAZA and EAZA work to codes of ethics. |
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| In terms of carrying out research in zoos, the welfare of the animals is the collection’s first regard. All research done in zoos should be put through an ethical review of sort. |
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| Generally speaking, research that does not involve contact with the animals, manipulating their behaviour or disrupting their routine unless there is a clear conservation benefit, should be acceptable. |
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| Unacceptable research includes; |
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any study which causes lasting pain, injury or distress, either physical or psychological |
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any study which causes unreasonable pain with no clear conservation benefits (brief, painful events may be appropriate in some cases) |
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erroneous research with no clear aims or benefits |
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research that is undertaken for human benefit only e.g. commercial or medicinal aims |
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| It would be a good idea to contact the zoo where the research might be focused in order to find out what kind of process they have and how long this takes. |
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| See World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA ) guidelines on ethical research in zoos. |
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| 2) Legislation that applies to Zoo's |
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| 3) Information on which zoos hold a certain species |
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| The International Species Information System (ISIS ) is an organisation that collates records on all the animals kept in its member zoos – 650 world wide (2008). By looking up a species, lists of zoos, their contact information and the number of that particular species they hold are given. |
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| BIAZA publishes annual inventories from member collections. These are available on the Members area of the BIAZA website or from the office. Many zoo websites also list which species they hold. |
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| 4) Use of Zoo Records |
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| If the right questions are asked, zoo records can produce some very interesting data for analysis. |
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| Zoo Research Guidelines: Use of Zoo Records outlines the data that are available from zoo records, constraints on their use and how to go about obtaining of them. |
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| 5) Tigers are not the only animals! |
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| The zoo community gets hundreds of requests for information on the same charismatic megafauna. BRG would like to encourage research and assignments done on a range of animals. |
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| Research in to enclosure or enrichment use of smaller, more inquisitive species may produce more data and more interesting results than research done on species that spend most of their day not moving very much (e.g. cats), however charismatic they may seem. |
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| 6) Zoos and Conservation |
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| Zoos support conservation in many ways; raising funds and awareness for their own or other organization’s projects, setting up and running projects themselves, providing technical support and/or equipment to projects and occasionally providing animals for a project (see studbooks and conservation). |
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| Under ‘Conservation’ on the BIAZA website there are some projects that our member zoos are involved with. Each zoo website will have information or links to projects that they run or support. In addition, the World Association of Zoos and Aquaria (WAZA ) have details of conservation projects run or supported by their member zoos. |
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| For a list of references to do with zoos and conservation, please see Chester Zoos’ Bibliography. |
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| Be aware that the word ‘conservation’ may mean different things, so think carefully how to define it for the purposes of the project and make this clear in communicating to the zoo. |
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| 7) Studbooks |
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| Studbook data sets tend to be in a DOS based programme called SPARKS. Zoos are very unwilling to give out a copy of this dataset because there will be many parameters and assumptions that are made. These will be different for each studbook as will the quality of the data. For example, historical records for some species are not as good as others. A population needs to be taken in context of management decisions that will change over time. Explaining these parameters and teaching someone how to use SPARKS and what the analysis means takes some time and effort. Therefore researchers need to be sure that it is studbook data are what they want and know what they wish to do with it. There are other places where these kind of data can be acquired from. See the EAZA website for lists of current species programmes in Europe. |
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| For more information on what data are involved in studbooks, please see the studbook page of the BIAZA website. |
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| 8) Studbooks and Conservation |
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| For the role that studbooks can have in the conservation of species in their natural habitat see “Zoos and Conservation”. |
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| Very occasionally, animals are bred in captivity for reintroduction. For reintroduction information, see Conservation page. |
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| Suggested species to look at as examples include: |
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| There are several overview papers looking at aspects of reintroduction projects and why many have failed. These can be very useful when looking at a particular project. Google Scholar© is an excellent place to find references and often provides the abstract, if not the whole paper. This is particularly useful if the library that the researcher uses does not have access to particular journals. |
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| 9) Behavioural studies and profiling |
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| Many research projects carried out in zoos have an element of behavioural study. It is strongly advised that researchers read Zoo Research Guidelines: Project Planning and Behavioural Observations, to highlight particular problems with carrying out such studies in zoos and how these can be overcome. |
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| 10)Enrichment |
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| Enrichment is done as part of the daily routine of animals. Each collection will manage this a certain way and some will allow new enrichment devises to be tested on their animals as long as they are not invasive and not interfering with the daily routine of either the animals or the keepers. Please contact the individual zoo to find out their policy. |
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| Sources for references include: |
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| For advice on how to evaluate the effect of enrichment devices please click here. |
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| 11) Stress |
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| Non-invasive monitoring of stress in zoo animals concentrates on the measurement and use of glucocorticosteroids to assess stress and the guidelines below are aimed at those relatively new to this field. It is advisable to read all sections before beginning a project. |
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| Please see Zoo Research Guidelines: Monitoring Stress in Zoo Animals. |
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| 12) Nutrition |
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| Nutrition of zoo and aquarium animals is incredibly important as zoos/aquariums can not feed them what they eat in the wild. This research therefore is invaluable but can be difficult to do. |
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| Guidelines on what samples and measurements will be feasibly available, how to acquire and analyse them and what to do with the results will be available in Zoo Research Guidelines: Nutrition [link to guidelines page] shortly. |
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| 13) Effects of Zoo visitors on animal behaviour |
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| The effects of the presence of human visitors on the behaviour of zoo animals are largely unknown; however the presence of people in close proximity is likely to be a significant variable affecting animal behaviour. It should therefore be something that is relevant to anyone interested in undertaking scientific research projects on zoo animal behaviour as it may affect how their results can be interpreted. |
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| See Zoo Research Guidelines: Studies on the Effects of Human Visitors on Zoo Animal Behaviour |
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| 14) Enclosure design |
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| Enclosures will have an impact on the behaviour and health of the animals that live in them. However, zoos tend not to have plans of enclosures to hand and will not be able to say what effect they have had on their animals. This information can only be gained from previous studies. |
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| Be aware that few management guidelines will give a prescriptive minimum size of enclosure as the complexity of an enclosure is often more important than m². For example, the ability to get physically and visually away from other individuals and the public may be important. For primates, bars and wire mesh that they can use to climb, will increase the effective amount of space the animals have. Conversely, enclosures can be designed so the animals effectively cannot get to some parts of it. E.g. for arboreal animals, they can only go where there are branches. |
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| For an outline on what to look for when looking at an enclosure and what to think about when building one, please see this presentation by Sue Dow, Bristol Zoo available for download here . ZooLex was established to help improve holding conditions for wild animals in captivity by: |
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publishing and disseminating information related to zoo design |
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promoting appropriate holding conditions for wild animals in captivity |
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providing balanced technical information and advice about zoo design, and |
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supporting research and vocational training related to zoo design |
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| A very good site is the WAZA Virtual Zoo which has information on many species, why zoos keep them and how to keep them. |
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| For more about enclosure design and animal welfare see the Animal Care Pages and Zoos Forum Handbook. |
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| When asking zoos and aquariums about their enclosures, please read the enclosure section of the Zoo Research Guidelines: Surveys and Questionnaires which will help ask the right questions. |
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| 15) Small sample sizes |
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| Most studies carried out in zoos result in the analysis of small sample sizes. This is due to the number of animals in an enclosure but also possibly due to the number of collections who respond to questionnaires (see questionnaires below). |
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| See ‘Zoo Research Guidelines: Statistics’ for statistical tests that can be used on small sample sizes. |
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| 16) Samples from the animals themselves |
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| There are very strict Home Office regulations about collecting samples from animals themselves. It is very unlikely that samples which need animals to be caught up or restrained in some way, will be allowed. |
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| See ‘Zoo Research Guidelines: Research Sampling Guidelines’ for easy to read guidelines regarding these regulations. |
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| All zoo research has to go through the collection’s ethical committee (see Zoos Forum Hand Book for ethical committee info) so researchers should include time for this to happen in their proposals. |
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| 17) Husbandry guidelines |
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| Husbandry guidelines published by BIAZA can be found on the Animal Care page . If guidelines for the taxa you are interested in is not listed, then try other zoo and aquarium associations - EAZA, AZA, ARAZPA, PAAZAB and search McDonald and Charlton, 2001 (£5 + p&p from the BIAZA office. |
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| Guidelines do become outdated as new information and technologies are made available so make note of the date they were published. Useful research can be done to updating or expand existing guidelines. Contact the author/publisher. |
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| If there are no current guidelines, then see the management guideline format that BIAZA guidelines follow. |
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| 18)Questionnaires |
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| Depending on the length of questionnaire and accessibility of the information requested a return rate of 50% should be expected. What might seem obvious information to have to hand, may not be so easy to locate for zoo staff. If the key person is away, then the questionnaire may not get answered, so polite reminders should be sent if no answer has been received within three weeks. |
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| It is essential that adequate preliminary work has been done to ensure questions are clear, sensible and answerable and DO NOT ask for information that could be easily obtained from published sources, websites etc. For more information on how to write a questionnaire and tips on how to send it out, see ‘Zoo Research Guidelines: Questionnaires’. |
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| Please ensure that these guidelines have been read and as much information as possible has been gathered BEFORE questionnaires are sent out. |
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| 19)Finding and obtaining references |
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| All the Zoo Research Guidelines have a reference section to help you begin. A list of journals that publish zoo research can be downloaded here [link to pdf]. Other pieces of previous research may be found through the zoos themselves and partner university departments. |
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| Web of Knowledge and Zoological Record are excellent search engines if access is available. Google and Google Scholar are also very good and are not limited to members. Often there are links to the papers themselves. |
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| See also the conservation page and Chester Zoo’s Bibliography for more conservation related references. |
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| ZSL library is a huge information resource with over 6,000 journal titles, approximately 1,300 of these are current. All journal holdings details can be found in the Library’s open access catalogue which can be found at here or via the link in the Library secion of the main ZSL website. In addition, the online catalogue contains book holding details for all books acquired since 1993, many pre-1860 books and has links to 75 online open access journals which can be used from any computer. |
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| ZSL Library can provide a photocopy service from items in stock in compliance with current copyright regulations. The minimum charge is £5.00. If you do wish to request photocopies from ZSL Library the please email libarary@zsl.org and provide a full reference. |
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| Inter-library loan with the British library may be a facility available in your nearest accessible library for difficult to find references. |
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| Most zoo websites will have species specific information on the species they keep. A very good site is the WAZA Virtual Zoo which has information on many species, why zoos keep them and how to keep them. |
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| 20) Multi Zoo research |
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| For research that is done across a number of collections, BRG suggests that you get support in the form of a letter of support from BIAZA. In order to get this support, please see the Getting started webpage. |
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| 21) Funding |
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| Most zoos do not have specific funding for researchers but they may be able to provide facilities and possibly small amounts of money. It is worth asking. |
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| Below is a list, by no means exhaustive, of grants that are available to zoo researchers: |
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| 22)Publications |
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| More people can benefit from the hard work that researchers have done if it is published, even in grey literature. The BIAZA Annual Zoo Research Symposium is a good, friendly place to present papers, and the Research Newsletter publishes abstracts and is sent to zoo professionals and academics around the world. |
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| For a list of peer reviewed publications that publish zoo based research click here Guidelines on how to publish zoo research are available here. |
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| 23) Acknowledgements |
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| This is where researchers get the opportunity to thanks all the people that facilitated contributed to the research. Acknowledgements should be no longer than half a page and more in depth lists could be put in an appendix if need be. |
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| 24) Say thank you!!!! |
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| Saying ‘Thank You’ to those who have taken time out of their already busy jobs to give information or data to a research project is very important and means you are more than likely to get the help you want. |
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| For more information on any of the above, please contact BIAZA. |
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