Do captive red kangaroos exhibit increased vigilance (awareness of potential threats) in the presence of large crowds of people? How does the presence of visitors in close proximity impact the interaction of red kangaroos? The average amount of time an individual kangaroo spends being vigilant is known to decrease as group sizes increase. (Carter et al. 2009). Vigilance is an integral component of antipredator behaviors in animals (Edwards et al. 2013). Many species exhibit fear responses, or vigilant behaviors, towards humans (Ciuti et al. 2012). However, some species do not as a result of the “Human Shields” hypothesis (Sarmento, Wesley). Research has found that in areas of a free-range exhibit in a zoo where there were more humans, kangaroos were much more vigilant (Sherwen et al. 2015). Sherwen et al. (2015) also identified that visitor effects on animals can be intensified in free-range zoo habits. Group size can influence the degree and amount of time red kangaroos exhibit vigilant behaviors in the wild (Favreau et al. 2010). The effects of visitor proximity and effects on red kangaroos behaviors are relatively understudied in captivity (Jones et al. 2021) so it is currently unknown how the stress of these animals relates to human presence, the levels of vigilance, or if humans are an enrichment to the captive kangaroo environment, among other notions

Creator

• Majewski, Bethanie

• Yockelson, Piper

Language

• English

Keyword

• kangaroos in captivity

• increased vigilance

• red kangaroos

• antipredator behaviors

• visitor effects on animals

• visitor proximity

• human shields hypothesis

Date created

• 2024

Resource type

• Poster

Rights statement

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/