Activity budget of zoo-housed Dolichotis patagonum mates

BAECHLI JOHAN; BELLIS LAURA M.; BUSSO, JM

Journal of Zoo and Aquariums Research

European Association of Zoos and Aquaria

Año: 2021

Captiveconditions differ widely from an animal?s ancestral environment and posetherisk of making them prone to reduced behavioural flexibility and sometimesimpaired reproduction. Dolichotispatagonum, a near threatened species, is a largerodent endemic to Argentina with a singular social organization which combinesmonogamy with communal breeding.  Our aimwas to learn more about the activity budget and behavioural synchrony betweenmates of zoo-housed D. patagonumandthus contribute toresearch and conservation programsatmodern zoos world-wide.We studied 28 animals housed at Córdoba Zoo (Argentina) under naturalphotoperiod and temperature conditions. We recorded behaviour once a week everyhour from 8:00-18:00during a 28-day period andcounted the total offspring atthe end of the spring-summer season. The recorded activity budget was: resting(43%), feeding (25%) and alert (13%), the remaining categories accounting forlessthan 10%. Resting, feeding and alert were the only categories associated withhourly changes. We detected 48% behavioural synchrony between mates(both sexesengaging in the same behaviour at the same time) and counted a total of 23offspring corresponding to one litter each for all producing females. Thesimilarity between the behavioural response of these zoo-housed individuals andavailable data on the behaviour of D.patagonum in the wild, indicates that zoo-housed D. patagonum behavioural activities can be considered positiveresponses, providing useful information for the future development ofreintroduction programs