Development of an animal welfare tool for zoo-housed primates, considering intra- and inter-rater reliability

Abstract

Over the past few decades, the concept of animal welfare has become increasingly prominent in Western societies. Faced with this collective awareness, various organisations are now making it a point of honour to consider the welfare of their animals. This highlights the need for an objective welfare assessment that endeavours to understand animals’ real feelings. Although consensus tools have been developed for livestock, there is still a long road ahead for zoo animals. The aim of this study, conducted at the Bourbansais Zoo, was to create a welfare assessment protocol specifically for zoo-housed primates. It was developed using: (i) the Five Domains model; (ii) indicators proposed in various animal welfare assessment protocols for zoo species and (iii) information on primate biology and welfare from the literature. Intra- and inter-observer reliability was evaluated using Gwet’s AC1 coefficient. A total of 21 of the 29 criteria in the evaluation grid are characterised by ‘good’ to ‘very good’ inter-rater reliability, according to the Altman classification. The results also reveal promising intra-observer reliability with only three criteria having an AC1 score below 0.6. Given these satisfactory results, the tool could prove to be useful for monitoring primate wellbeing over time, implementing corrective actions and evaluating the effects of these modifications.