Kalai Arasi Arumugam
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Title: Behaviours of endangered Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) in relation to ecological, climatic and anthropogenic factors: implications for captive management and conservation
Biography
Biography: Kalai Arasi Arumugam
Abstract
Changes in the living environment such as restricted space, continuous stream of visitors and being under the management of humans have been shown in many other wild animals to cause significant changes in their natural behaviours that can result in stress, breeding difficulties, poor health, and repetitive stereotypic behaviours. However, it is still unknown whether the above factors can also affect the Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus). Therefore, we undertook a study to investigate the potential stressors in both male and female captive Malayan tapirs by evaluating the effect of enclosure type, enclosure size, climatic and human factors on behaviours that were quantified through direct and indirect observations. Analysing our data using Generalised linear mixed-effects model, glmer, we found that enclosure type had a significant effect on feeding behaviour where tapirs in semi-wild enclosures fed more frequently than tapirs in captivity. We noticed significant adverse effects from visitors and background noises that caused increases in vigilance behaviour and reduced the time spent on resting in captivity. We also observed stereotypic behaviours in captivity such as frequent pacing and sleeping under water while holding their breath for over one minute at a time. From this study, we conclude that the enclosure with improper enrichments and surroundings with loud sound exposure are potential stressors that will affect the welfare of Malayan tapir.