All animals have an internal clock called a circadian clock, which is regulated by cues from their environment—but animals in zoos can be exposed to very different cues from animals in the wild.
are very dependent on seasonality, like pandas. Animals in captivity could also be affected by anthropogenic cues, like keepers' regular visits.Gandia and her fellow observers used webcams to monitor 11 giant pandas at six zoos both inside and outside pandas' natural latitudinal range. Every month for 12 months, they carried out a day's worth of hourly focal sampling to gauge how pandas' behavior changed across a day, and how that changed across a year.
Pandas outside their home latitude were less active, perhaps because daylight and temperature cues differed at different latitudes. Supporting this, the researchers found that the behavior of the pandas in mismatched latitudes differed from those in matched latitudes most when the pandas in mismatched latitudes were receiving more divergent daylight and temperature cues.
and showing abnormal behaviors that could represent anticipation of keepers visiting with fresh food.' abnormal and sexual behaviors fluctuated at similar points. The researchers suggested this could represent frustration that they can't migrate or mate as normal. Pandas who lived at mismatched latitudes performed fewer abnormal behaviors, possibly because they weren't getting the same cues for sexual behaviors.
"To expand on this research, we would want to incorporate cycles of physiological indicators," said Gandia."Importantly, we would want to assess sexual hormones to understand the effects the environment may have on the timing of release. This could help us further understand how to promote successful reproduction for a vulnerable species which is notoriously difficult to breed.
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