The questions I’ve been asked more than any other over the last year: Are the animals behaving differently without any visitors around? Do they miss us, or are they enjoying the break?

A new study by UK researchers has provided some answer to these question with two popular species - meerkats and penguins. The short answer is that the meerkats are acting a bit different in your absence, but the penguins, not so much.

First, the meerkats. The researchers observed the behavior of 19 meerkats across three UK zoos during the first COVID-19 lockdown, and during the first month the zoos were reopened (temporarily, it turns out). The researchers were looking for whether behavior changed along with the reopening. And it did. There were not overt signs of distress when visitors returned, however, meerkats used the parts of their habitats closest to the visitor area less often when the zoos reopened, and they were more alert.

Now to the penguins. Unlike the meerkats, the African penguins went about business as usual when visitors returned. The researchers studied 58 penguins living in a South African zoo and didn’t find any change in how the penguins used their space, nor how they behaved, when the zoo reopened to the public.

So, why the difference? It could be that there are real species differences between meerkats and penguins that make them more or less aware of visitors milling about. This would make sense, since meerkats have evolved to be on more high alert for threats of predation. It may also be an effect of these specific groups studied - the penguins were in one large colony and may have sensed more safety in numbers than the meerkats who were living in relatively small groups. Or it could be something entirely different - as the authors note, this study brings us just one step closer to understanding how zoo animal welfare is impacted by visitors, and more work is needed (and on the way!).

Learn more about the researchers

Ellen Williams, Harper Adams University, Newport, UK

Anne Carter, Nottingham Trent University, Nottinghamshire, UK

Jessica Rendle, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia

Samantha Ward, Nottingham Trent University, Nottinghamshire, UK

Article

Ellen Williams, Anne Carter, Jessica Rendle, Samantha J. Ward. (2021). Understanding impacts of zoo visitors: Quantifying behavioural changes of two popular zoo species during COVID-19 closures. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2021.105253.