Zoo and aquarium research

Dr Joanna Newbolt researches a range of animal behaviour and welfare topics in a zoo environment, including husbandry of carnivores (particularly felids), environmental enrichment, behaviour during the night, and the effect of visitor feeding, and public events on the behaviour of the zoo animals.

She is also interested in looking at zoo visitor behaviour and education, and conservation behaviour change. Her work also investigates the effect of predictability and routine on patterns of animal behaviour, and how positive reinforcement training can be used as a tool in zoo environments.

PhD student Francesca Bandoli (supervisor Joanna Newbolt) is working on assessing the impact of human-animal interactions on penguins' behaviours to improve the welfare of individuals housed in zoos and aquaria.

Dr Katherine Herborn leads the ZACB MSc programme and her research on zoo animals involves non-invasive measures of stress, such as using thermal imagining and video analysis, to assess individual response to the zoo setting.

Dr Nikolaus von Engelhardt uses molecular methods to assess genetic diversity, paternity and sex, as well as endocrine methods that can be used for non-invasive studies (using hair, feathers, saliva or faeces) to assess stress and reproductive performance in captivity.