General information about the dissertation Title: Assessing the behaviour of captive African lions in response to zoo visitors. Research Questions: a) Do visitor numbers affect the behaviour of lions in captivity? b) Do visitor numbers affect the lions’ enclosure usage? -Aims: The Primary Aims are to assess how different levels of visitor presence at zoos affect the behaviour patterns of captive African lions and to analyse the influence of visitor numbers on how lions use different areas within their enclosures. -Methods: Scan Sampling: scan length of twenty minutes with scans every sixty seconds was appropriate. To simplify the process of taking scan samples a data collection sheet was made out. Behavioural observations were conducted based on a specific ethogram for African Lion behaviours. Date and weather were recorded on each scan sample, and time was recorded at each interval. Individual visitor numbers were noted every minute along with the behaviours during the scans. The lions’ behaviours along with the visitor numbers were recorded about 5 hours each day. Data collections were distributed to weekdays and weekends (Excluding initial test day). Enclosure Usage: The enclosure was sectioned into 4 zones: The edge zone—the part of the enclosure closest to the visitor area. The back zone—the part of the enclosure furthest from the visitor area. The enrich zone—the part of the enclosure containing structures such as trees, sleeping platforms, sheds, logs, rocks, or elevated bars. The other zone—the parts of the enclosure that does not fall into any of the above categories, for example, outdoor areas between the edge of the enclosure and the enriched zone or closed rooms with no viewing windows or platforms. Question (b) was answered using data collected by noting the position of all visible lions within the four different zones of the enclosure just before starting each 20-min scan sample interval and just after each 20-min scan sample interval, this along with recording the visitor numbers. The number of individuals not visible were recorded as Out of Sight. (Request is the Results section/Data Analysis) Please Use the lastest version of R programme to analyse the lion’s behavioural observation scan sampling data and the lions enclouser usage data. (Section A of the Results) -To answer question (a), I would like you to demonstrate my data in visuals: Showing the different Behaviours and the visitor number groups in (low, moderate, and high) columns. -The graphs that I want for question (a) are as follow: 1) bar chart showing the inactive behaviours against different visitor densities (low, moderate, and high) in both weekdays and weekends. 2) bar chart showing the active behaviours against different visitor densities (low, moderate, and high) in both weekdays and weekends. 3) bar chart showing the social behaviours against different visitor densities (low, moderate, and high) in both weekdays and weekends. 4) bar chart showing the social behaviours against different visitor densities (low, moderate, and high) in both weekdays and weekends. 5) bar chart showing the feeding behaviours against different visitor densities (low, moderate, and high) in both weekdays and weekends. 6) bar chart showing the other behaviours against different visitor densities (low, moderate, and high) in both weekdays and weekends, 7) bar chart showing all 6 groups of behaviours against different visitor densities (low, moderate, and high) in both weekdays and weekends. 8) a graph/table showing the frequency of specific behaviours and correlate this with visitor numbers. (Section B of the Results) -To answer question (b), I want you to demonstrate my data in visuals: Showing the different locations of all visible lions within the four different zones of the enclosure against the number of visitors in both weekdays and weekends.
