#stereotypical behavior

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Hi! I was wondering if you knew anything in particular about the Lincoln Park Zoo- I think it’s the only zoo I’ve ever been to that’s free/no admission! Especially considering the scale. The only thing that concerned me was that their polar bears seem to have a history of stereotypical behaviors (pacing, primarily) which I saw while I was there, but again, I’m a total outsider to the actual inner workings of the facility. Sorry if this is too vague, haha.

There's a couple city zoos like that with free entrance! It's a cool option, and indicative of the city providing enough funding for the facility to operate without the need for income from tickets. (Sometimes the way things are set up, I think they can be required to stay free). The St. Louis Zoo is another!

I don't know a lot about the Lincoln Park Zoo beyond what I've seen as a guest. I've gone a couple times and haven't seen anything that stood out to me as major red flags, but that's just from a public perspective and not a comprehensive assessment. They're AZA-accredited and have been for a long time, which is an indication of their general ethos and operations. I can't speak to more than that about their quality, unfortunately.

You're right about the polar bear stereotypies - that's a thing I've seen for myself. The thing is, with stereotypies - and especially with polar bears - they're not necessarily an indicator of current welfare or quality of life.

For folk who are new to the blog or unfamiliar with the concept, in animal care, a stereotypy is a "repetitive, invariant behavior pattern with no obvious goal or function." Examples often seen are repetitive pacing, head-bobbing, licking or chewing, and rocking or swaying. (It's important to note that not all repetitive behaviors are stereotypic behaviors - e.g. animals may pace when excited and anticipating the arrival of a keeper). Stereotypies can be an indicator of chronically poor welfare, under-stimulating enrichment, or inappropriate captive environments, but the important thing to know about that is that they often persist after the problem that caused them is resolved. So you can take a polar bear or an elephant that picked up a stereotypic behavior in one zoo and move them to another, much better situation, and they may still continue the stereotypy.

(The fact that stereotypies can be indicators of previous, but not current, welfare problems is a really important nuance that is often left out of discussions. Sometimes they're called "zoochosis", which anti-captivity folk define as "the psychosis induced by captivity"... but that's a very unscientific approach, and doesn't facilitate productive discussion or attempts to identify causes and alleviate the behavior. Zoochosis is nothing but a useless manipulative buzzword, folks.)

Bears in general seem to be prone to stereotypies in captive situations. I've seen some recent research that hypothesizes it's likely due to a lack of ability to engage in normal behavioral sequences, such as foraging. Polar bears seem especially prone to it. One 2013 study found that of the 55 polar bears in North America they assessed, 85% engaged in stereotypical pacing. It might be because they natural cover such a huge range in the wild that older, smaller exhibits haven't allowed them to move as much as they need to; it could also be due to a historical lack of appropriate enrichment. We don't really know, because there's so many potential factors, and the long lifespan of polar bears means longitudinal studies of multiple generations take a very long time.

These are both things the industry is working on fixing: newer polar bear exhibits are built to be much larger and more complex, and there's been a heavy focus in the literature for at least a decade on finding ways to reduce stereotypies by providing engaging enrichment and increasing bears' activity levels. Lincoln Park Zoo's polar bear habitat was renovated in 2016, and - while it looks rather boring to me, as a guest - it was apparently designed to allow for a lot of activity range and polar bear-specific needs.

Their current bears are both about 20 years old, and were transferred to the Lincoln Park Zoo after the new habitat was completed. It's entirely plausible the bears arrived with stereotypies from their previous facilities, given that the emphasis on improving polar bear care is younger than they are. Here's a photo I took there a couple years ago, of Talini (I think), engaging in a repetitive head tossing behavior. It's definitely hard to watch, as a guest, and I don't remember if they had signage up about it.

That all being said, I wouldn't judge the whole zoo based on the polar bear stereotypies, because there's so much at play there in terms of history and the evolution of care for the species. What's important is how they're handling it, and what they're doing to help encourage more normative behavior from the bears. Given the amount of research and effort the zoo field has put into addressing the topic in polar bears for the last decade, it's highly probable that a lot of staff time goes into helping reduce the amount of time those bears spend engaging in stereotypies.

[bathask]

無料Apple Musicも今日迄。味の素の還暦過ぎ年寄り認知機能維持100年健脳手帳アプリ大人の発達障害アスペルガー/自閉スペクトラム症の障害福祉A型作業所昼食記録前にサ終。Apple Watch無しiPhone睡眠時間,体重,呼吸血圧心拍数や歩数など服薬記録ヘルスケアアプリ自閉症スペクトラムASD常同性のこだわり

[k9offline]

being nonhuman kinda feels like zoochosis in a way,,, like an animal raised in captivity in a non suitable enviroment who would never survive in the wild pacing around in circles for hours on end because they know it just isnt right

[aidoxl]

John: (In awe) "The fog parts. I finally see it. Castle Kerringford"

Castle Kerringford:

[alwaysbewoke]

It's even scarier when they fake cry right in your face

[thatsparrow]

giving psych another go after having watched the first season and a bit a couple years ago before stopping because I hadn't really been feeling it

only like six or seven eps in this time, and I am enjoying it, and I would like to stick with it this time, but god, now I do remember why I gave up on it in the first place. for all the show has going for it (which is a lot!) so much of the tone (and shawn is usually the biggest offender) falls back on those really insufferable attitudes from the mid ’00s of like. hit on every woman you see, getting laid is always the biggest priority. kneejerk disdain for anything nerdy or "uncool." I'm a guy and that means I care about porn and sports and that's it

[starlooove]

“Fandom isn’t fun anymore fandom isn’t fun anymore” tbh it just feels like white racist “normies” jumped in as opposed to white racist nerds and for me personally u can feeeel it kinda but it doesn’t change much

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Another healing thing I like about my irl jewish community is that my masculinity hasn't ever been questioned. In a lot of ways, I totally get where people feel uncomfortable with the binary expectations of the genders are, but I live my life functionally in a binary way. It's just nice (for me) to wear kippah, to speak hebrew, and it's clear what the expectation is for who I am. In so many ways, it's nice to just take a break from feeling the need to educate people, to be almost a sounding board, and to just focus on judaism. I've gotten so used to feeling out of place that being in jewish spaces just feels nice.

Of course, this isn't to say that all jewish spaces are the same, that jews are a monolith. This is just my experience at my shul. I appreciate that they just accepted me into the fold and that I haven't had to give a seminar like I feel many people in non-jewish spaces almost require of you so that they can even consider accepting you. I know there is a lot of work that trans jews have done and are still doing, and we ought to highlight, recognize, and appreciate.

[pratchettquotes]

"How do you know the new clock is being built in Ankh-Morpork?" said Lobsang trailing behind Lu-Tze as he took a mossy, sunken path that led through rhododendron thickets to the monastery wall.

"I know. I'll tell you, the day someone pulls the plug out of the bottom of the universe, the chain will lead all the way to Ankh-Morpork and some bugger saying, 'I just wanted to see what would happen.' All roads lead to Ankh-Morpork."

"I thought all roads led away from Ankh-Morpork."

"Not the way we're going."

Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

[bathask]

限局した興味,感覚過敏や鈍麻,常同行動こだわりのDSM-5自閉症スペクトラム障害B項目RRB光るものに熱中でこもれびキラキラ光るもの反射光ガラス瓶など好き。卒業する大人の発達障害アスペルガー/自閉スペクトラム症の就労継続支援B型事業所通所の高不安も明暗具合見つめ解消。先日ASD精神科通院処方薬整理せねば

[phffuntimes]

Nothing will ever change my mind on the fact that the “Her anger is my anger,” line should've been about fear. Not only does it make more thematic sense for both Fugo and Sheila as characters, but I generally don't believe anger is much of a defining trait for either of them, and I'm actually sick of it in Fugo's case. He’s nowhere NEAR as angry or as IntelligentTM as ppl make him out to be, so can we PLEASE look beyond what we’re told about this character and focus on what we’re shown??

[buttered-toast-and-sentiment]

some LOTR fans apparently: i can't believe Eowyn gave up being a badass warrior to become Faramir's wife and a lame healer, ugh Tolkien being sexist in spite of himself

me: the. war. was. OVER!!!! ????

[henrysglock]

oh and in case we forgot: people with ASPD/“psychopaths” and people with low or no empathy aren’t inherently evil! Yes, even if they’re “innate psychopaths” (they’re born with the condition).

hope this helps.

[constantvariations]

Blake hid her ears seemingly without any consequences, but I think it'd be far more interesting if constantly wrapping her ears in a bow cramped them or affected her hearing. It'd make her choice to pass as human more poignant, and her decision to embrace her faunus traits far more liberating and satisfying

It also makes me wonder how many faunus choose to pass despite the harm they're doing to their bodies and how faunus with traits that can't be hidden, like giant scorpion tails or bat wings, might feel about those than can pass easily

There's so little shown about faunus culture and intercommunity politics and average lives, and it never not makes me sad

[ridl]

Something i rlly dislike abt Ganyu's characterization in fandom is how ppl see her being read as a stupid weak stereotype, and they just retaliate with another stereotype but from the other end of a spectrum.

She can be strong, competent, knowledgable and have very important role in the Liyue Qixing for years, but also be kind, humble, avoiding conflicts and NOT always knowing everything. those are not mutually exclusive!!! Yes she's old, no that doesn't mean she's now perfectly confident, knows everything and is good at everything. She's not some untouchable, divine being, better than everyone else. Stop removing humanity from her, when that's the whole point of her identity!!!

When i see overly confident, dominant, bitchy, smug, flirty Ganyu i start throwing rocks bc that's not Ganyu, begone impostor.

I just want Ganyu to be actually herself. Not a submissive secretary caricature. Not a dommy mommy caricature. JUST Ganyu, with all her complexity, strengths and weaknesses.

It's like treating Ganyu's personality as inherently weak and boring, so in the act of "justice for women" ppl just remove it and replace with a caricature of a strong woman. It's driving me insane when those "women defenders" are just slandering them, without even thinking abt it. If someone thinks a woman being quiet, kind, humble, avoiding conflict etc. is inherently "misogynistic" and needs those traits to be completely removed and replaced, then they just hate women

[trans-leek-cookie]

ur comment on that post abt dunmeshi mischaracterization is so real. the white ppl have got to go i have seen the most egregious takes on certain characters particularly the ones who are clearly not white and its like hmmm i wonder why these white ppl r so quick to demonize the characters that arent white 🤔

TRULY. It's so scary out here. Can anyone hear me