Mammals are unique among vertebrates in experiencing a need to carry out behaviours which are not necessary for their immediate survival. This poses questions as to the nature of these behavioural needs, how they evolved and their implications for the welfare of mammals in captivity. Evidence is provided to show that mammals carry out daily programmes of activity which meet four kinds of requirement, namely, for security, appropriate environmental complexity, novelty and opportunities for achievement. Within their programmes mammals perform two kinds of activity: work, which relates to day to day survival, and leisure, in the form of curiosity or play, which provides experience which may prove to be of value in the long term.

The existence of behavioural needs is consistent with our knowledge of mammalian evolution. Even the earliest known mammals, living over 120 million years ago, differed from reptiles in having brain to body size ratios four to five times greater. The increase in brain size resulted largely from the massive expansion of a region of the cerebral cortex, known as the neopallium, which acts as a co-ordinating centre for sensory data, and creates a model of the world which determines subsequent action. During the 60 million year tertiary era, relative brain size increased in most orders of eutherian mammals, so that only the more intelligent survived.

Because mammals rely for their survival on collecting and analyzing data and acting intelligently, they need facilities to search for information to establish and monitor their concept of the real world; their psychological well-being depends on an environment which offers such facilities. There are two kinds of behavioural needs; psychological needs, which appear to be unique to mammals, and ethological needs which are experienced by all vertebrates. It is concluded that environmental quality for captive mammals should not just be assessed negatively, by the absence of abnormal behaviours, but more positively by the extent to which it meets their psychological needs.

The influence of an environmental enrichment feeding device (puzzle feeder), on activity and behaviour patterns of captive orang-utans, gorillas and chimpanzees was studied at London Zoo. General activity levels and behaviours directed towards the feeder increased for all species when the feeder was filled with food Chimpanzees used the feeder significantly more (18% of observation periods) than either gorillas (10%) or orang-utans (9.4%). There was considerable individual variation of puzzle use by individuals within each group and time of day also affected use. In some instances abnormal behaviours were reduced. These results are discussed in relation to the management of captive great apes and it is suggested that the use of puzzle feeders can improve the welfare of these animals.

This study compared the effectiveness of kraft wrapping paper and rubber toys as enrichment for 22 chimpanzees group-housed in conventional indoor/outdoor runs. Objects were tested separately during 67 hours of data collection using a group scan sampling technique. Paper was used a mean 27 per cent of the available time, while the Kong Toys™ were used a mean 10 per cent of the available time. The degree of object manipulation and object contact was higher with the paper, but the level of social play and solitary play with the object was not differentially affected by the two objects. The objects had differing effects on the subjects’ levels of grooming, but affiliation, agonism, inactivity and sexual behaviour did not vary according to the object being used. A gender-by-age interaction was found, with immature males exhibiting the highest levels of solitary play with objects. Object use steadily declined over the first hour of exposure, showing evidence of habituation. Object use when the Kong Toy™ was present declined over the course of the study, but use of the paper remained consistent. Texture, destructibility, portability, complexity and adaptability may be important in determining the object's value as effective enrichment. The destructible wrapping paper was a more worthwhile enrichment object than the indestructible Kong Toy™ for the captive chimpanzees in this study.

The behavioural reactions and blood Cortisol levels of cattle stunned using a penetrating captive-bolt pistol whilst standing free in a stunning box were compared with those obtained from cattle similarly stunned but with their heads held in a hydraulically operated chin-lift type of head restrainer. Few (8 out of 55) animals voluntarily put their heads into the restrainer, most had to be ‘persuaded’ to use the head-restrainer; some (5 out of 24) could not be. The mean time between entry into the stunning pen and the stun for 23 free standing animals was 5.6s and for 19 animals which could be persuaded to use the head restrainer was 34.2s. The Cortisol levels in the blood taken at the stick, from 30 animals stunned while standing free was 67.6 nmoVlitre while that from 30 stunned while head-restrained was 143.1 nmolHitre. The behaviour and Cortisol results suggest that enforced usage of this type of head restrainer could be a cause of distress to the cattle involved.

Many of the improvements in the welfare of laboratory animals over the last 10 or so years have come about through the application of the principles of the 3 Rs: replacement, reduction and refinement, originally put forward in 1959 by Russell and Burch. More recently the term alternatives is being used to mean, in a precise sense, replacement and less precisely all three of the Rs. Application of these principles has resulted in a decrease in the number of animals used and a lessening of the amount of suffering. These developments have been welcomed by the scientific community and the legislators as well as by animal welfarists.

The Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC) in the UK not only supports work on the physiology, biochemistry and pathology of farm animals but is also deeply involved in the non-medical biological sciences and, increasingly over recent years, with cell and molecular biology and bio-technology.

Animal behaviourists, in general, and those of the ethological persuasion in particular, carry out many field studies on the behaviour of animals in their natural environments. Field experiments include those in which animals, living in their usual surroundings, are subjected to manipulations such as the introduction' of dummies (models), the supplementation or reduction of their food supply, the playing-back of recorded animal sounds, their capture, alteration of appearance and release and the application of telemetric recording equipment. Such studies have an important part to play in our understanding of behavioural ecology. These techniques, of course, interfere with the animals to varying degrees and there may, at times, be ethical problems involved in their use. Is suffering being caused? Is there likely to be loss of life? Is it possible that the environment may be damaged? A paper which looks critically at the techniques used in field research and assesses some of the ethical issues has recently been published in the journal Animal Behaviour. The point is made that it may be possible to accept some level of distress in animal experimentation if the purpose is the alleviation of human suffering, but it may not be acceptable if the goal is the satisfaction of intellectual curiosity alone.

A consumer expects poultry on sale in shops and supermarkets to be of high quality, safe to eat and, increasingly nowadays, to have been humanely produced. These criteria can only be met if the birds are well treated when alive and their carcases hygienically processed after they are dead. The responsibility for the birds’ welfare while growing lies mainly in the hands of the farmer; once they have left the farm it largely falls upon the poultry processing industry.

There has been considerable consultative and committee work in the UK over the last 3 years on the transport of animals. Most of this was related to a draft Regulation issued by the Commission in June 1989 and circulated for comment to over 80 interested organizations, by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1989 and subsequently in 1990. Earlier in April 1990, the House of Commons Agriculture Committee started an independent inquiry on this subject and in November 1990 the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) set up a working group to look at the EC proposals.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), founded in 1824, has recently reorganized its staffing and developed its scientific and technical departments to help pursue its objectives in a changing world. A new Science Division, headed by Dr Tony Suckling, incorporating the Farm Animals, Research Animals and Wildlife Departments, has been created to work alongside the Veterinary Department.

There has long been recognition of the hazards to wildlife wherever the cutting of crops for silage or hay coincides with the nesting and rearing of game birds and the perinatal period of roe and fallow deer.

A report on the welfare of laying hens in colony systems has been presented by the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) to the Agriculture Ministers of Great Britain. It makes some 61 recommendations for the improvement of the welfare of laying birds in deep litter houses, perchery (bam) houses, multi-tier colony houses and in free-range systems. The main part of the report deals with housed birds; the coverage of hens in free-range systems is somewhat limited.

Conservationists are anxious to re-establish populations of endangered species in the wild whenever suitable habitat becomes available. Many zoos, worldwide, are committed to breeding and maintaining viable stocks of endangered animals to ensure that species which are becoming increasingly rare in the wild have a residual population in captivity. The logic underlying this approach is that captive bred stocks can be re-introduced to supplement wild stock or, in the worst case, actually to form a new population in the wild.

The Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) and Agricultural Training Board (ATB) booklet (36 pages) is designed to accompany the HSA video Livestock in Transit - Handle with Care. It provides supplementary material for the ATB training courses.

The badger has been widely written about as an interesting wild mammal, as a reservoir/victim of bovine tuberculosis infection and as the subject of the cruel and illegal ‘sport’ of badger baiting. As a consequence, the literature on this species is extensive - naturalists, veterinary surgeons, scientists, conservationists and others have published widely in the technical journals and the specialist magazines.