Publicaties

Reptiles are often used as model species in scientific research and are popular in the pet trade, yet how they cope with captive conditions has not been well studied. Stress caused by captivity could affect the endocrinology, physiology and behaviour of animals, resulting in a general decrease in welfare and could confound the results of scientific experiments. One of the factors that could influence stress in a captive environment is the size ...

In response to an increased awareness concerning the welfare of captive animals, several studies have investigated the effect of provisions on stress levels in model species, such as small mammals, birds and fish. In contrast, reptiles have received less attention. Although many reptilian species are becoming increasingly popular in the pet trade and are frequently used as model species in various branches of biology and a number of studies have ...

We investigated the influence of zoo visitor numbers on the behaviour of a group of eight harbour seals at Antwerp Zoo. The behaviour of the seals was monitored using instantaneous scan sampling. Visitor presence at the enclosure was also monitored instantaneously. Additionally, daily visitor num-bers for the zoo were gathered. We related seal behaviour to both the number of visitors present during the instantaneous sampling and to the daily ...

This paper describes the successful purification and characterisation of pregnancy-associated glycoproteins (PAG) extracted from placenta (3-4 months) of American bisons (Amb). Chorionic AmbPAG proteins were purified from foetal cotyledonary tissues (CT) and liquid cotyledonary-carrying proteins (LCP) leaking from damaged cells. Our protocols successfully indicated the usefulness of AmbPAG protein identification, especially from LCP fraction. ...

Bonobos have a reputation as a female-dominated and egalitarian species. We examined the 2 aspects of dominance in 6 captive bonobo groups. Females do not consistently evoke submission from all males in all contexts. Though females occupy the highest-ranking positions in the dominance hierarchy, there are in each group males that obtain rather high ranks and are able to dominate >= 1 female. Thus female dominance is not complete and ...