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This document discusses the effects of enclosure complexity and design on the behavior and physiology of captive animals. It emphasizes the importance of providing animals with control and choice within their housing environments, as well as ensuring that social groups are structured in a way that mimics natural environments. The presence of humans, visitor interactions, and the materials used in enclosure construction can also influence animal behavior. The document includes several studies that explore the relationship between enclosure design and animal welfare, highlighting the benefits of larger and more complex enclosures that allow animals to express natural behaviors and preferences. The authors suggest that further research is needed to understand the impact of lighting, the environment outside the enclosure, and physiological stress responses in order to improve animal welfare. Additionally, they recommend studying a wider range of taxa and holding conditions to develop guidelines for different animal groups. [Extracted from the article]

An animal's environment contains many risks causing animals to scan their environment for potential predators and threats from conspecifics. How much time they invest in such vigilance depends on environmental and social factors. Most vigilance studies have been conducted in a foraging context with little known about vigilance in other contexts. Here we investigated vigilance of Gouldian finches at waterholes considering environmental and social factors. Gouldian finches are colour polymorphic with two main head colours in both sexes co-occurring in the same population, black-headed and red-headed. Data collection was done on birds sitting in trees surrounding waterholes by measuring the frequency of head movements, which reflects how frequently they change their field of view, i.e., scan different areas in their environment. A higher frequency generally reflects higher vigilance. Gouldian finches had a higher frequency of head movements when at small waterholes and when sitting in open, leafless trees. Moreover, head movements were higher when birds were alone in the tree as compared to groups of birds. Finally, birds in same head colour morph groups had a higher frequency of head movements than birds in mixed head colour groups. Results indicate heightened vigilance with increased perception of predation risk (small waterholes, open exposed perch, when alone) but that social vigilance also played a role (group composition) with particularly the aggressive red-headed birds being more vigilant when together with other red-headed birds. Future research should investigate the effect of smaller waterholes as global warming will cause smaller waterholes to become more common for longer periods of time, which can increase stress in the birds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Animals monitor their environment (vigilance) to detect predators and keep an eye on conspecifics. Once a change has been detected, vigilance generally increased to collect more information. However, little is known about the time course of vigilance to return to normal, which can tell us how threatening animals perceive different situations. This was investigated in Gouldian Finches by assessing the frequency of head movements in 15-min blocks across an hour in four situations (familiar environment, two changed environments with novel objects added at different locations and an unfamiliar environment). The time course of vigilance to return to normal differed between situations with consistently high vigilance when a novel object was placed above the feeder that only returned to normal at the end of the hour indicating that this situation was perceived as threatening. In contrast, a novel object placed at a neutral location on a perch did not elicit a strong response and vigilance mirrored the familiar situation with only a slight decline over time. Finally, vigilance plummeted to very low levels in the unfamiliar environment and did not recover within an hour. Birds may have looked in one direction for longer to take in all details. Vigilance is an important behaviour to monitor the environment from detecting predators to tracking conspecifics. However, little is known about how vigilance changes over time either without disturbance (vigilance decrement) or after a change occurred. The time course of vigilance can indicate how animals perceive a situation and the potential mechanism used to deal with it. I investigated the time course of vigilance in Gouldian Finches in four situations (familiar environment, two changed environments–novel object at a neutral location (exploration trial) or above the feeder (neophobia trial), novel environment). The frequency of head movements was assessed in four consecutive 15-min blocks in same sex pairs with a high frequency generally seen as indicative of high vigilance. Vigilance decreased over time in the familiar situation indicating vigilance decrement with a similar time course in the exploration trial. Vigilance was consistently high in the neophobia trial and only returned to normal in the last block. Finally, vigilance plummeted in the novel environment and did not return to normal within an hour. Results suggest that perceived threats affected vigilance and that information gathering reduced uncertainty allowing vigilance to return to normal levels but with different time courses depending on the situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Ramsey and colleagues the main constituent psychological processes of innovation are response to novelty, exploration, and the ability to recognize a novel solution. I fully support this view but point out that novelty reactions are often context-specific. I will expand on this and discuss the possible consequences of contextspecific novelty reactions on the emergence of innovations.

Colour polymorphism is a widespread phenomenon and often encompasses different behavioural traits and strategies. More recently, it has been shown that morphs can also signal consistent individual differences (personality). An example are Gouldian finches that show discrete head colour morphs in the same population with red-headed birds being more aggressive but less risk-taking and explorative than black-headed birds in the lab. The current study aimed to investigate the link between head colour and behavioural traits in a naturally risky situation in the wild by recording the order of descent at waterholes in relation to hypotheses considering conspicuousness, dominance relationships and experience. Other bird species at the waterholes were also included in the study. Adult Gouldian finches generally preceded juveniles and among the adults the least conspicuous black-headed females descended first to the waterhole. Overall, females descended before the males though this pattern disappeared later in the season likely due to family groups breaking up and releasing males from attending to the juveniles. Finally, Gouldian finches almost always followed other species, particularly Long-tailed finches, to the ground rather than taking the lead. A two-level process of decision-making seems to explain the responses best: on the first level, experience separates adults from juveniles with adults preceding juveniles and on the second level, conspicuousness acts as a factor among the adults with the least conspicuous category taking the lead. Future studies should directly test the link between head colour and personality in the wild, look more into seasonal effects and investigate whether Gouldian finches use Long-tailed finches as an indicator of safety., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.