Análise comportamental da utilização de abrigo em gaiolas de serpentes em cativeiro: estudo preliminar

Abstract

The discussion about welfare of laboratory animals has been gaining a lot of space in the scientific field, currently, taking into account non-conventional research models such as snakes. The captive environment should allow the animal to have natural behaviors, in case the snakes curl up and take shelter. Thus, this work aimed to analyze whether the presence of shelter helps animals welfare. For this, Bothrops moojeni snakes kept in the intensive serpentarium of the Herpetology Laboratory, at the Butantan Institute, were placed in front of situations: without shelter, with dark shelter and with transparent shelter and were recorded during the entire period of the experiment. These data were analyzed and the results observed that there was no significant difference in rest and movement activities in relation to the presence or absence of shelter, there was also no significant difference in preference between the types of shelter. Therefore, the presence of shelter, regardless of the type of material, does not have unfavorable characteristics, and may be the subject of future studies for the improvement of the serpentarium.