Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T04:48:30.367Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

21 - Studying Play in Zoos and Aquariums

from Part IV - Basic Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2018

By
Sabrina I. C. A. Brando  and
Gordon M. Burghardt
Edited by
Allison B. Kaufman ,
Meredith J. Bashaw  and
Terry L. Maple
Allison B. Kaufman
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
Meredith J. Bashaw
Affiliation:
Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania
Terry L. Maple
Affiliation:
Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens
Get access

Summary

Play behavior, commonly seen in zoos and aquariums, especially when animals are well housed, is fascinating to visitors, and zoos and aquariums are a potentially rich source of both basic and applied knowledge about this often mysterious behavior. Here, we provide some background on recognizing and studying play, as well as the diversity of the types and manifestations of play one can observe and study in exhibit facilities. The role of play in the psychological well-being of captive animals and the habitat and environmental provisions are discussed, along with play as an adjunct in animal training procedures. Opportunities for research on the role of play in development, adaptation to captivity, and comparative studies are great and greatly important.
Type
Chapter
Information
Scientific Foundations of Zoos and Aquariums
Their Role in Conservation and Research
 , pp. 558 - 585
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahlering, M. A. & Faaborg, J., 2006. Avian habitat management meets conspecific attraction: If you build it, will they come? The Auk, 123, 301–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Altmann, M. (1956). Patterns of herd behavior in free-ranging elk of Wyoming, Cervus canadensis nelsoni. Zoologica, 41(2), 65–71.Google Scholar
Amundin, A., Starkhammar, J., Evander, M., Almqvist, M., Lindström, K. & Persson, H. W. (2008). An echolocation visualization and interface system for dolphin research. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123, 1188–1194.Google Scholar
Anon. (Ed.) (1975). Research in Zoos and Aquariums. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Antonacci, D., Norscia, I., & Palagi, E. (2010). Stranger to familiar: Wild Strepsirhines manage xenophobia by playing. PLoS One, 5(10), e13218.Google Scholar
Baldwin, J. D. & Baldwin, J. I. (1974). Exploration and social play in squirrel monkeys (Saimiri). American Zoologist, 14, 303–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, J. (1980). The ecology, structure and functions of social play in bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis). Journal of Zoology, 192(4), 531–542.Google Scholar
Brando, S. & Buchanan-Smith, H. M. (2017). The 24/7 approach to promoting optimal welfare for captive wild animals. Behavioural Processes. In press.Google Scholar
Buchanan-Smith, H. M. (2010). Environmental enrichment for primates in laboratories. Advances in Science and Research, 5, 41–56.Google Scholar
Burghardt, G. M. (1975). Behavioral research on common animals in small zoos. In Anon. (Ed.), Research in Zoos and Aquariums (pp. 103–133). Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Burghardt, G. M. (1984). On the origins of play. In Smith, P. K. (Ed.), Play in Animals and Humans (pp. 5–41). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Burghardt, G. M. (1988). Anecdotes and critical anthropomorphism. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 11, 248–249.Google Scholar
Burghardt, G. M. (1991). Cognitive ethology and critical anthropomorphism: A snake with two heads and hognose snakes that play dead. In Ristau, C. A. (Ed.), Cognitive Ethology: The Minds of Other Animals (pp. 53–90). San Francisco, CA: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Burghardt, G. M. (1996). Environmental enrichment or controlled deprivation? In Burghardt, G. M., Bielitski, J. T., Boyce, J. R., & Schaefer, D. O. (Eds.), The Well-Being of Animals in Zoo and Aquarium Sponsored Research (pp. 91–101). Greenbelt, MD: Scientists Center for Animal Welfare.Google Scholar
Burghardt, G. M. (2005). The Genesis of Animal Play: Testing the Limits. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Burghardt, G. M. (2011). Defining and recognizing play. In Pellegrini, A. D. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Development of Play (pp. 9–18). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Burghardt, G. M. (2014). A brief glimpse at the long evolutionary history of play. Animal Behavior and Cognition, 1, 90–98.Google Scholar
Burghardt, G. M., Bielitski, J. T., Boyce, J. R., & Schaefer, D. O. (Eds.) (1996). The Well-Being of Animals in Zoo and Aquarium Sponsored Research. Greenbelt, MA: Scientists Center for Animal Welfare.Google Scholar
Burghardt, G. M., Chiszar, D., Murphy, J. B., Romano, J., Walsh, T., & Manrod, J. (2002). Behavioral diversity, complexity, and play in Komodo dragons. In Murphy, J. B., Ciofi, C., de la Panouse, C., & Walsh, T. (Eds.), Komodo Dragons: Biology and Conservation (pp. 78–117). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Press.Google Scholar
Burghardt, G. M., Ward, B., & Rosccoe, R. (1996). Problem of reptile play: Environmental enrichment and play behavior in a captive Nile soft-shelled turtle (Trionyx triunguis). Zoo Biology, 15, 223–238.3.0.CO;2-D>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burleson, C. A., Pederson, R. W., Seddighi, S., DeBusk, L. E., Burghardt, G., M., & Cooper, M. A. (2016). Social play in juvenile hamsters alters dendritic morphology in the medial prefrontal cortex and attenuates effects of social stress in adulthood. Behavioral Neuroscience, 130, 437–447.Google Scholar
Byers, J. A. (1985). Olfaction‐related behavior in collared peccaries. Ethology, 70(3), 201–210.Google Scholar
Carrasco, L., Colell, M., Calvo, M., Abelló, M. T., Velasco, M., & Posada, S. (2009). Benefits of training/playing therapy in a group of captive lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). Animal Welfare, 18, 9–19.Google Scholar
Cheney, D. L. (1978). The play partners of immature baboons. Animal Behaviour, 26, 1038–1050.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cloutier, S., Panksepp, J., & Newberry, R. C. (2012). Playful handling by caretakers reduces fear of humans in the laboratory rat. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 140, 161–171.Google Scholar
Coe, J. (2011) Architects and Enrichment: How Can Zoo Architects Build-In Animal Enrichment Opportunities …And How Can Enrichment Specialists Help? Retrieved from www.joncoedesign.com/pub/PDFs/ArchitectsAndEnrichment2011.pdfGoogle Scholar
Cordoni, G., Norscia, I., Bobbio, M., & Palagi, E. (2018). Differences in play can illuminate differences in affiliation: A comparative study on chimpanzees and gorillas. PLoS One, 13(3), e0193096.Google Scholar
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1991). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Darling, F. F. (1937). A Herd of Red Deer. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Davis, H. & Balfour, D. (Eds.) (1992). The Inevitable Bond: Examining Scientist–Animal Interactions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Diamond, J. & Bond, A.B. (2003). A comparative analysis of social play in birds. Behaviour, 140, 1091–1115.Google Scholar
de Waal, F. B. M. (2016). Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Fagen, R. (1981). Animal Play Behavior. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fagot, J. & Bonté, E. (2010). Automated testing of cognitive performance in monkeys: Use of a battery of computerized test systems by a troop of semi-free-ranging baboons (Papio papio). Behavior Research Methods, 42, 507–516.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glickman, S. E. & Sroges, R. W. (1966). Curiosity in zoo animals. Behaviour, 26, 151–188.Google Scholar
Graham, K. L. & Burghardt, G. M. (2010). Current perspectives on the biological study of play: Signs of progress. Quarterly Review of Biology, 85, 393–418.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hall, B. A., Melfi, V., Burns, A., McGill, D. M., & Doyles, R. E. (2018). Curious creatures: A multi-taxa investigation of responses to novelty in a zoo environment. PeerJ, 6, e4454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harlow, H. F. (1953). Mice, monkeys, men, and motives. Psychological Review, 60(1), 23.Google Scholar
Held, S. D. E. & Špinka, M. (2011). Animal play and animal welfare. Animal Behaviour, 81, 891–899.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henricks, T. S. (2014). Play as self realization. Toward a general theory of play. American Journal of Play, 6, 190–213.Google Scholar
Henricks, T. S. (2015). Play and the Human Condition. Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Hosey, G. & Melfi, V. (2012). Human–animal bonds between zoo professionals and the animals in their care. Zoo Biology, 31(1), 13–26.Google Scholar
Jones, B. L. & Kuczaj, S. A. (2014). Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) novel bubble helix play behavior. Animal Behavior and Cognition, 1, 206–214.Google Scholar
Kim, L. C., Garner, J. P., & Millam, J. R. (2009). Preferences of orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazona amazonica) for cage enrichment devices. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 120(3), 216–223.Google Scholar
Kotrschal, A. & Taborsky, B. (2010). Environmental change enhances cognitive abilities in fish. PLoS Biology, 8(4), e1000351.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krebs, B. L., Marrin, D., Phelps, A., Krol, L., & Watters, J. V. (2018). Managing aged animals in zoos: A review and future directions. Animals, 8, 116.Google Scholar
Kuba, M. J., Byrne, R. A., Meisel, D. V., & Mather, J. A. (2006). When do octopuses play: Effects of repeated testing, object type, age, and food deprivation on object play in Octopus vulgaris. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 120, 184–190.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Markowitz, H. (1982). Behavioral Enrichment in the Zoo. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.Google Scholar
Martin, P. & Caro, T. M. (1985). On the function of play and its role in behavioral development. Advances in the Study of Behavior, 15, 59–103.Google Scholar
Mather, J. A. & Anderson, R. C. (1999). Exploration, play, and habituation in octopuses (Octopus dofleini). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 113, 333–338.Google Scholar
Norscia, I. & Palagi, E. (2011). When play is a family business: Adult play, hierarchy, and possible stress reduction in common marmosets. Primates, 52(2), 101–104.Google Scholar
Ono, K. A., Boness, D. J., & Oftedal, O. T. (1987). The effect of a natural environmental disturbance on maternal investment and pup behavior in the California sea lion. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 21, 109–118.Google Scholar
Palagi, E. (2011). Playing at every age: Modalities and potential functions in non-human primates. In Pellegrini, A. D. (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of the Development of Play (pp. 70–82). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Palagi, E., Burghardt, G. M., Smuts, B., Cordoni, G., Dall’Olio, S., Fouts, H. N., … Pellis, S. M. (2016). Rough-and-tumble play as a window on animal communication. Biological Reviews, 91, 111–127.Google Scholar
Paulos, R. D., Trone, M., & Kuczaj, S. A. (2010). Play in wild and captive cetaceans. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 23, 701–722.Google Scholar
Pellis, S. M. (1991). How motivationally distinct is play? A preliminary case study. Animal Behaviour, 42, 851–853.Google Scholar
Pellis, S. M. & Burghardt, G. M. (2017). Play and exploration. In Call, J. (Ed.), Burghardt, G. M., Pepperberg, I. M., Snowdon, C. T., & Zentall, T. (Assoc. Eds.), APA Handbook of Comparative Psychology: Vol. 1. Basic Concepts, Methods, Neural Substrate, and Behavior (pp. 699–722). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Pellis, S. M. & Iwaniuk, A. N. (1999). The problem of adult play fighting: A comparative analysis of play and courtship in primates. Ethology, 105, 783–806.Google Scholar
Pellis, S. M. & Iwaniuk, A. N. (2000). Adult–adult play in primates: Comparative analyses of its origin, distribution, and evolution. Ethology, 106, 1083–1104.Google Scholar
Pellis, S. M. & Pellis, V. C. (2009). The Playful Brain: Venturing to the Limits of Neuroscience. Oxford: Oneworld press.Google Scholar
Pellis, S. M. & Pellis, V. C. (2011). Rough-and-tumble play: Training and using the social brain. In Pellegrini, A. D. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Development of Play (pp. 245–259). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pellis, S. M. & Pellis, V. C. (2018). “I am going to groom you”: Multiple forms of play fighting in gray mouse lemurs (Micricebus murinus). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 132, 6–15.Google Scholar
Pellis, S. M., Pellis, V., Barrett, L., & Henzi, S. P. (2014). One good turn deserves another: Combat versus other functions of acrobatic maneuvers in the play fighting of vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops). Animal Behavior and Cognition, 1, 128–143.Google Scholar
Poole, T. B. (1998). Meeting a mammal’s psychological needs: Basic principles. In Shepherdson, D. J. & Mellen, J. D. (Eds.), Second Nature: Environmental Enrichment for Captive Animals (pp. 83–94). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Rivas, J. & Burghardt, G. M. (2002). Crotalomorphism: A metaphor for understanding anthropomorphism by omission. In Bekoff, M., Allen, C., & Burghardt, G. M. (Eds.), The Cognitive Animal: Theoretical, Methodological, and Empirical Approaches (pp. 9–18). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sharpe, L. L. (2005a). Frequency of social play does not affect dispersal partnerships in wild meerkats. Animal Behavior, 70, 559–569.Google Scholar
Sharpe, L. L. (2005b). Play does not enhance social cohesion in a cooperative mammal. Animal Behavior, 70, 551–558.Google Scholar
Sharpe, L. L. (2005c). Play fighting does not affect subsequent fighting success in wild meerkats. Animal Behavior, 69, 1023–1029.Google Scholar
Sharpe, L. L. & Cherry, M. I. (2003). Social play does not reduce aggression in wild meerkats. Animal Behavior, 66, 989–997.Google Scholar
Siviy, S. M. (2010). Play and adversity: How the mammalian brain withstands threats and anxieties American Journal of Play, 2, 297–314.Google Scholar
Špinka, M., Newberry, R. C., & Bekoff, M. (2001). Mammalian play: Training for the unexpected. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 76(2), 141–168.Google Scholar
Starkhammar, J., Amundin, M., Olsén, H., Almqvist, M., Lindström, K., & Persson, H. W. (2007). Acoustic Touch Screen for Dolphins, First application of ELVIS – an Echo-Location Visualization and Interface System. Retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/768807.Google Scholar
Sutton-Smith, B. (2003). Play as a parody of emotional vulnerability. In Lytle, D. E. (Ed.), Play and Educational Theory and Practice (pp. 3–17). Stamford, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Tacconi, G. & Palagi, E. (2009). Play behavioural tactics under space reduction: Social challenges in bonobos, Pan paniscus. Animal Behaviour, 78(2), 469–476.Google Scholar
Thompson, K. V., Baker, A. J., & Baker, A. M. (2010). Parental care and behavioral development in captive mammals. In Kleiman, D. G., Thompson, K. V., & Baer, C. K. (Eds.), Wild Mammals in Captivity: Principles and Techniques (pp. 367–385). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Vanderschuren, L. J. & Trezza, V. (2014). What the laboratory rat has taught us about social play behavior: Role in behavioral development and neural mechanisms. Current Topics in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16, 189–212.Google Scholar
Visalberghi, E. & Guidi, C. (1998). Play behaviour in young tufted capuchin monkeys. Folia Primatologica, 69(6), 419–422.Google Scholar
van den Berg, C. L., Hol, T., van Ree, J. M., Spruijt, B. M., Everts, H., & Koolhaas, J. M. (1999). Play is indispensable for an adequate development of coping with social challenges in the rat. Developmental Psychobiology, 34, 129–138.Google Scholar
Waller, B. M. & Cherry, L. (2012). Facilitating play through communication: Significance of teeth exposure in the gorilla play face. American Journal of Primatology, 74(2), 157–164.Google Scholar
Yamanashi, Y., Nogami, E., Teramoto, M., Morimura, N., & Hirata, S. (2018). Adult–adult social play in captive chimpanzees: Is it indicative of positive animal welfare? Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 199, 75–83.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×