An Enclosure Design Tool to enable zoos to create integrated, wild-type enclosures for great apes

Time is running out for our great ape relatives that are centre stage in the balance between improving the quality of human lives and living within the Earth's limits. Orangutans for example inhabit prime areas for agricultural expansion, timber extraction and palm oil plantations; bonobos inhabit areas of prolonged warfare and mountain gorillas inhabit areas that are crucial for minerals such as Coltan and for oil. If habitat destruction continues apace all great apes will be extinct in the wild within 20 years (World Conservation Union [IUCN]).

In parallel with efforts to manage wild populations and habitats sustainably, modern zoos must form 'arks', to maintain viable populations of threatened species that can re-populate the wild if needed. This requires a step-change in our approach, to go beyond simply 'preserving' the animal for its genetic material to 'conserving the whole organism'- the behavioural traits and physical adaptations that are a vital part of what determines an animal's ability to survive in the natural environment.

Great apes are, however, some of the most difficult species to keep successfully in captivity. Health problems, such as obesity, are common, and some display aberrant behaviours and signs of stress, often related to a lack of relevant physical and mental activity. As stewards of these species for future generations, zoos need to be empowered with effective tools to ensure healthy, wild-type captive populations within a range of budgets.

That is what we are proposing: To devise an Enclosure Design Tool (EDT) that will enable zoos to develop independently effective strategies to ensure captive apes are able and motivated to express and maintain wild-type behaviours. In order to develop and validate the EDT, we will work with our project partner Twycross Zoo to apply our combined expertise on the behaviour of wild apes and management of captive apes to re-design their chimpanzee and gorilla enclosures.

This is much more than a simple enrichment plan. We will apply our knowledge of how animals deal with the demands of their natural habitat from locomotor, cognitive, social and cultural perspectives to design innovative, integrated wild-type enclosures. We will provide both the opportunity and incentive for wild-type behaviours, by exploiting the apes' motivation for one type of behaviour to encourage the expression of others. In the wild, all behaviours are strongly interlinked; by playing-on the relationship between them we can ensure that wild-type activity becomes a way of life for the animals, not a short-term novelty. The EDT will be innovative in that it will incorporate all of the core species-specific functional habitat requirements in one system. It will focus on replicating the mechanical and structural features of their habitats, not simply the aesthetics, and in relating it to data for wild animals, it will ensure the best fit for each species.

To our knowledge this partnership will be the first in the zoo community to draw on such a range of expertise to develop and release a stand-alone tool for future use by other zoos without academic input, and taking into account different budgets. Our advisory board will facilitate the dissemination of the EDT throughout the zoo community. This will improve the ability of UK and global zoos to act as true 'arks', and improve their financial situation by attracting more visitors to see animals behaving like their wild counterparts.

Our results can ultimately help inform those protecting and managing great apes environments in the wild by developing understanding of the core minimum elements needed to replicate natural environmental systems to support great ape wild-type behaviour, and support more successful reintroduction programmes by informed selections of possible habitats and better prepared apes.

This innovation project is driven by impact and will have substantial economic and social impacts for our primary partner Twycross Zoo, for policy maker partner BIAZA, for the UK as a whole and ultimately for those managing the environments of great apes in range countries. These are described in detail in the Case for Support with pathway descriptions. A summary of key outcomes is provided below.

Key Benefits for Twycross Zoo (TZ):

1. Innovative housing and the associated improvements in the animals' activity levels and wild-type behavioural repertoire will enhance TZ's regeneration process (through enhanced reputation and status) and increase their economic status by attracting more visitors to see these popular animals. Such developments can lever corporate sponsorship. TZ will administer visitor questionnaires before and after the enclosure changes, to measure the impact of the project on visitor satisfaction (and thus financial impact), and will provide the academic team with this data for reporting.

2. The academics will transfer knowledge and expertise that TZ currently lacks in wild-type behavioural ecology to inform evidence-based enclosure design and management. This will facilitate the new Exec. Team's vision to catalyse cultural change within the organisation to be an international leader in captive management. The Enclosure Design Tool (EDT) will ensure the sustainability of the knowledge transfer by equipping TZ to implement an evidence-based approach independently for future developments.

Key Benefits for BIAZA

The EDT has the capacity to significantly enhance the UK's leadership in evidence-based management of great apes in captive habitats. The modularity and flexibility of the EDT make it applicable to both large and small scale habitat modifications, and can be used by non-experts, and is thus clearly advantageous for the numerous UK zoos without ready access to academics, or substantial funding for new enclosures. Its free availability to BIAZA members is therefore central to its success.

Key benefits to UK:

1. Zoos and aquariums are a growth sector that currently contribute £645 million in total activity to the UK economy and employs over 11,000 people, with visitors spending ca. £350 million per annum (BIAZA). Since active great apes are a primary attraction for zoo visitors, the project has the potential to enhance the UK's economic competitiveness in the tourism and culture sectors and contribute to sustained and/or improved employment.

2. The EDT also offers opportunities for linked enclosure architects and materials manufacturers to innovate alongside the findings of this project in order to manage the modifications that will be required in enclosure design and development, further enhancing the UK's position as an advanced materials and manufacturing hub.

In the long term the EDT can provide evidence to inform responsible management practice of environmental change in great ape range countries by:

1. developing user understanding of the core minimum elements needed to replicate natural environmental systems in order to support great ape wild-type behaviour, and support more successful reintroduction programmes by informed selections of possible habitats and better prepared apes.

2. building resilience to natural and anthropogenic habitat change by fulfilling the 'ark concept' and preparing species that have an important biological role in tropical forest for reintroduction, if required. Ensuring great ape sustainability in natural habitats preserves an essential natural resource with which to generate funding, catalyse cultural change and societal benefit and ensure the stewardship of natural resources for future generations.

To demonstrate the impact of this project we provide Letters of Support from example end users: Paignton Zoo and the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance that know our work and can best judge the value of the EDT we will produce for their fields.