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Cross-species interaction and communication: a study method applied to captive siamang (Hylobates syndactylus) and long-billed corella (Cacatua tenuirostris) contacts with humans

1992; Elsevier BV; Volume: 33; Issue: 2-3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0168-1591(05)80013-9

1872-9045

Amanda Nimon-Peters, F.R. Dalziel,

Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies

An approach to the study of cross-species interaction and communication is described and then applied to human-siamang (Hylobates syndactylus) and human-corella (Cacatua tenuirostris) interactions in Adelaide Zoo. Four male and two female siamangs housed in pairs in contiguous cages, and one male corella were chosen. The human subjects were those visitors present in the zoo on the days of data collection. Samples of behaviour were taken using a video camera and a video recorder and four 20-min samples were collected at the siamang enclosure and the corella enclosure on a "busy" day (a weekend or public holiday) and then again on a "quiet" day (a weekday). The presence of people at the corella enclosure is associated with a number of behaviours on the part of the animal which do not appear at other times and which involve a relatively high degree of energy expenditure. The results suggest that the presence of people is reinforcing for the bird, particularly as the corella seems to put more effort into interactions with humans on quiet days when there are fewer people in the zoo. Several kinds of siamang behaviours have a specific effect on human behaviours, indicating that we assign a similar "meaning" to these behaviours. Similarly, particular human behaviours exert specific effects on siamang behaviours. Siamangs appeared to respond to some human behaviours as they would to hostile behaviours from another siamang. The study suggests that knowledge of the effects that people are having on the behaviour of animals may be an important consideration in the housing of zoo animals, and may indeed be useful in any domain in which people and animals meet.