Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In recent years, animal welfare scientists working in professionally managed settings have increasingly focused on promoting resilience to enhance the quality of life of individual animals. Resilience—defined as an animal’s capacity to be minimally affected by a disturbance or to rapidly return to the physiological, behavioral, cognitive, health, affective, and production states that pertained before exposure to a disturbance—involves various systems and dynamic processes. There is evidence that resilience can be measured using a suite of species-specific indicators, including both behavioral measures and physiological biomarkers. These indicators should be tracked for individuals of the same species over time and across various conditions, events, and experiences. Large-scale, multi-institutional studies allow welfare scientists to collect cross-sectional data to identify “resilient phenotypes” for the species of interest. Ultimately, the focus should be on improving outcomes for individual animals as they face particular stressors, challenges, and environmental disturbances over their lifetime. Animal care specialists play a crucial role in helping animals build resilience by providing opportunities to engage in cognitive challenges, stimulating environments, and species-appropriate social interactions. This review defines resilience for animal welfare scientists, as well as discusses how to measure and promote resilience in animals residing in zoos and aquariums.
DOI: 10.3390/jzbg6030048
Authors: Jessica C. Whitham, Lance J. Miller
Institution: Brookfield Zoo Chicago
Language: English
Subfield: Small Animals
Field: Veterinary
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,207
OpenAlex ID: W4414410959