Course « Communicate with zoo visitors »

Understand animal behaviour is undeniably a valuable tool for animal management. Initiation or improvement, our team support you.

ObjectifIntroduction to animal behavioural science, to ensure excellence in animal care.

The animals around us, do not have a verbal language like our own. Nonetheless, they communicate with their conspecifics, and express themselves to us through their behaviours. Ethology – or animal behaviour, the science of behaviour, is a non-verbal approach for understanding and decoding these behaviours, and above all, to interpret the meaning of these behaviours. The use of ethology is thus an inescapable approach to assess well-being. Nonetheless, as we cannot directly access to animal emotions or verbal communication, we must be cautious in our analyses. For a valid interpretation, data collected through a rigorous and scientific approach is required.

Content:

• History and concepts of Animal behaviour
• Methods of observation
• Methods of study
• The animal in its environment
• Physical and social interactions
• Construction of an ethogram
• Data Collection and Results Analysis
• Ethology and animal welfare

This workshop contains both practical and theory activities; including discussions, group work, individual work, research tasks.