Behavioral Research Program
The Chicago Zoological Society’s Behavioral Research Program answers essential questions about optimal animal care and well-being, and helps extend our understanding of animals’ biology and behavior.
Under the guidance of Dr. Jason Watters, the program examines zoo-animal behavior in comparison with theory and wild-animal behavior. Beginning as a small program focusing on the animals at Brookfield Zoo, it has grown exponentially in recent years, utilizing advances in technology to greatly enlarge the quantity of subjects it studies.
Areas of research include how animals’ personalities affect their reactions to different circumstances or uncommon events; the roles of different individuals in group function; and how animals are affected by different types of environmental enrichment.
Groundbreaking Technology
Zoological institutions are valuable resources for the study of animal behavior because data can be collected with relative ease. A significant drawback, however, is the limited number of animal subjects per species at a single institution. Pooling data from across institutions can help increase sample sizes, resulting in databases that are more representative of species behavior.
The Behavioral Research Program’s groundbreaking Colonel Stanley R. McNeil Ethotrak Program was developed to promote standardized behavioral monitoring of animals at multiple institutions. The program enables the collection of data on large sample sizes of threatened and endangered species, a difficult feat given the rarity of many of these animals.
Working closely with Chicago Zoological Society IT staff, program scientists have developed software with which trained observers keep standardized records of animal behavior on portable palm pilots. Our initial testing involved five institutions collecting data on four varied species: white-cheeked gibbon, Micronesian kingfisher, okapi, and Atlantic bottlenose dolphin.
The okapi study has grown to include an unprecedented scope. There are only ninety okapi resident in U.S. zoological institutions, and Brookfield Zoo has four of these. Using Ethotrak technology and protocols, however, CZS researchers are currently conducting a nineteen-institution study involving more than fifty okapi.
A Tradition of Research Excellence
Our investment in behavioral research dates back to the 1956 appointment of CZS President Emeritus Dr. George Rabb. Through his early work, the Zoo grew to understand the value of baseline behavioral monitoring in directing husbandry decisions. Behavioral research was also found to offer insight into the previously poorly understood biology of many species.