Effect of Carcass Feeds on Feeding Behavior and Social Interactions in Zoo-Based African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus)

Management of African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) in zoos involves several challenges, including the difficulty of providing appropriate stimulation and enrichment for naturally wide-ranging, energetic, cursorial hunters. Perhaps consequently, zoo packs can exhibit bouts of extreme intra-pack aggression rarely seen in the wild. As with other species, considerable efforts are required to balance the retention and exhibition of wild-type behaviors, against ensuring that the nutritional and welfare needs of individual group-living animals are met. While some behaviors, such as hunting and wide-ranging movements are impossible to mimic in zoos, the provision of food may be refined to allow natural feeding behavior to be displayed. We conducted a feeding experiment on a breeding pack of nine African wild dogs at Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Australia, presenting food in three treatments (individual pieces, butchered carcasses, and whole carcasses) to determine whether: (1) natural age-related patterns of feeding behavior were observed; (2) food type or presentation affected feeding behavior, duration, and interactions. Free-ranging African wild dogs exhibit an age-based feeding structure at kill sites that is rare in other species. We found that carcass and butchered carcass feeds more closely exhibited the age-based feeding observed in the wild. The pack spent twenty times as long consuming carcasses than food presented as individual pieces, with consumption times matching those in the wild. Carcass and butchered carcass feeds also increased the number and rate of interactions over food compared to individual pieces, with a high proportion of interactions resulting in sharing outcomes. This suggests that carcass feeds allow the exhibition of natural patterns of behavior without increasing the risk of negative social interactions. Our results highlight the importance and possibility of managing socially complex carnivores through husbandry that balances the display of natural behavior with positive animal welfare.