What makes the whole process of understanding reptile
welfare and wellbeing even more messy is there are no
perfect methods to measure these concepts. The most
common way welfare is measured is through observation
of abnormal repetitive behaviours (ARB; also referred to
as stereotypic behaviours). This focuses on how often the
animal repeats an extended behaviour that has no
achievable goal or function. Similarly, welfare has also
been measured in terms of the number of attempts to
interact with transparent boundaries (ITB) such as
nclosure walls. Classic reptile examples of ITB include
blue-tongues (Tiliqua spp.) repeatedly attempting to
climb the edge of an enclosure; water dragons
(Intellagama lesueurii) running the wall of an enclosure
and rubbing their noses until they get oozing abrasions;
or snakes kept in tubs continually probing the walls of
their enclosures. These two metrics serve as an interest-
ing counterpoint to what I believe are the two most
commonly used measures of ‘success’ and ‘wellbeing’ in
the hobby, being reproductive output (large clutch size
and large egg mass per clutch) and weight of animals.
In the following paragraphs I’m going to discuss some
taxa-specific studies for lizards, snakes and turtles. It is
important to realise is that scientists are constrained by
time, effort and money. As a result, a lot of broader
concepts are investigated through a single species as a
model organism. Even though each of the following
examples is focused on a single species (and is addition-
ally constrained by the limited number of animals tested)
it doesn’t necessarily follow that the results are restricted
to that species. Conversely, it doesn’t mean the results
are true of all reptiles of that group.
Leopard Geckos (Eublepharis macularius) and five
types of enrichment.
Bashaw, M. J., Gibson, M. D., Schowe, D. M. & Kucher,
A. S. (2016). Does enrichment improve reptile welfare?
Leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius) respond to five
types of environmental enrichment. Applied Animal
Behaviour Science, 184, 150-160.
Bashaw et al. used a group of captive-bred Leopard
Geckos to investigate the welfare benefits of enriching
captive environments through five different types of
stimuli: feeding, thermal, olfac tory, object and visual.
Feeding stimuli involved offering the geckos crickets
through two different puzzle feeders, one being commer-
cially available and the other home-made from PVC pipe.
Thermal stimuli were offered through two different bask-
ing perches; a branch and a wooden bridge decoration.
Olfactory stimuli consisted of two different scented
blocks impregnated with snake scent and mint respec-
tively. Object treatment entailed animals being provided
with two different dog toys to interact with; a ball and a
rolling cylinder. Lastly, the visual component involved
supplying animals with a mirror so that they had access
to their reflection.
Unsurprisingly, the
animals were found to
interact with all the
stimuli at levels that
statistically speaking
were not random
(meaning the lizards
were choosing to interact
with the stimuli). The
feeding, thermal, olfactory and object treatments were all
found to change the specific behaviours of the geckos
and greatly increase the diversity of behaviours they
displayed. This suggests a corresponding improvement in
the animals’ welfare. Furthermore, animals that were
stimulated also spent a greater amount of time perform-
ing exploratory behaviours throughout the cage.
Changing the behaviours of rat snakes through
simple environmental enrichment.
Almli, L. M. & Burghardt, G. M. (2006). Environmental
enrichment alters the behavioral profile of ratsnakes
(Elaphe). Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 9
(2), 85-109.
This study investigated how snake behaviour changes in
an enriched environment as compared to ‘standard’
housing. Animals housed in standard conditions were
maintained in small enclosures with a single hide, a brick
and paper substrate. Enriched animals were housed in the
same size enclosure, but
were given aspen bedding,
a moist hide and a climb-
ing log with a hide of sorts
on top. There were also
two different feeding
regimes; standard animals
were fed dead prey while
enriched were fed live prey
items. As a brief sidenote,
live feeding vertebrate
prey is an entirely different ethical ballpark and careful
consideration should be used in determining if it is
required for your situation, which in most circumstances
it isn’t.