Stress hos skruvhornsget, Capra falconeri, på Nordens Ark - Hur påverkas arten av skötare?

Sammanfattning: To find out what stresses the markhors, Capra falconeri, at Nordens Ark the herd of five female individuals have been observed during four hours per day for 10 days. In the wild these animals live at high altitudes of the Himalayan Mountains and are excellent climbers with impressive horns that can grow up to 160 cm. The aim was to find out if the zookeepers had a stressing impact on the herd, and therefore the animals were observed during two hours in the morning, when a zookeeper was present, and two hours in the afternoon, when the animals where undisturbed. The results showed that the animals were not more stressed when the zookeeper was present. This indicates that the zookeeper doesn’t have a stressing impact on the herd. However, each individual acted more stressed at times when they ate. This is quite common for most animals but for the herd at Nordens Ark there is a possibility that the feeding area is located to far down in the enclosure for the animals to feel safe. The animals tend to escape to higher altitudes when they sense danger and if the feeding area was located higher up it is possible that the animals would show fewer stressed behaviours. During the observations it was noticed that one of the individuals showed tendencies to have a role of lookout in the herd. This however could not be proved by the results.