A Study on Diurnal Activity Pattern of Captive Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus) in Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolkata, India
Paper Details
A Study on Diurnal Activity Pattern of Captive Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus) in Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolkata, India
Abstract
The diurnal behavioral pattern and activity time budget of a male sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) was studied at Alipore Zoological Garden, West Bengal, India from October 2022 to June 2023. This study aimed to make a comparison of the overall diurnal activity between winter and summer seasons, and hourly activity budget from 10.00 to 17.00 h by using focal sampling method with 12,600 minutes of observations. The daily activity pattern of the sloth bear reached the peak at 1st three hour of observation period during summer season, while the last three hour of the observation period during winter season. The bear was more active during the summer season than the winter. Basking was significantly higher (P<0.05, DMRT) during winter, possibly due to low environmental temperature, whereas panting was significantly higher (P<0.05, DMRT) in summer, might be related to thermoregulation of the animal during the summer. The sloth bear exhibited the stereotypic behaviors in very low frequency (2.23% to 3.87%) which was a sign of the animal’s good health and also depicted that the animal was in a less stressed condition. Moreover, the results of this observational study allow comparison between the captive sloth bears from different zoos as well as between the captive and wild sloth bears. Additionally, the findings of the current study on activity time budget of a captive sloth bear will provide a baseline information of their behavioral pattern that would be useful in improving the management strategies for their welfare.
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Mousumi Das, Moumita Basu, Arijit De (2023), A Study on Diurnal Activity Pattern of Captive Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus) in Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolkata, India; IJB, V23, N5, November, P10-23
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