Binturong Behaviour: The Visitor Effect

Arctictis binturong (photo credit: Emily Spencer)

In this edition of our 'Meet the Researcher' blog, we hear from Emily Spencer, who has just spent her final undergraduate year studying the captive behaviours of binturong. In this blog, Emily tells all about her research and why it was important for the welfare of zoo-housed binturong.

The Binturong (Arctictis binturong) is a largely nocturnal mammalian carnivore belonging to the Viverridae family. Binturongs have a primarily arboreal lifestyle within forests in Southeast Asia, and despite being considered carnivores, consume a largely frugivorous diet. The IUCN Red List currently classifies the species as ‘Vulnerable’ with decreasing wild populations due to urbanisation and the illegal wildlife trade. This status imposes a high conservation value upon captive populations, and has led to the development of an EAZA Ex-situ programme (EEP) to help with directions for species management. Ecological information for both wild and captive populations is limited, which greatly reduces the ability to inform species-specific conservation goals, and highlights how important binturong research is.

Zoo Visitor Effect

Researching the impact of zoo visitors on animal behaviour first gained credibility in the late 1980’s, but the theory still remains largely biased towards primates, and greater species variety is definitely needed. I’m particularly interested in the understudied impact on small, nocturnal species as I had thought that their reversed cycle would increase their sensitivity to visitor presence, and being smaller may make humans appear intimidating; implied by visitor avoidance/out of sight behaviour. This formed the basis of my hypothesis, predicting that binturongs would be negatively impacted by greater visitor presence.

To explore this, I completed sixty hours of behavioural observations on the three binturongs housed at Crocodiles of the World, a small zoo in Oxfordshire. The species was first introduced to the zoo in October 2022 with the arrival of Winnie, an adult male who was eight years old at the time of data collection. In July 2023, the zoo gained a female called Willow who is housed together with Winnie as a breeding pair. She was approaching two years old at the time of data collection, and gave birth to her first binlet six days before the first day of data collection; a male called Basil.

The enclosure comprises of three sections, consisting of both on-show and off-show areas. Each

binturong had constant, equal access to all areas, allowing them to choose whether or not they

wanted to be visible to members of the public at any given time. The outdoor enclosure is fully on-show to visitors, but is densely vegetated and has many enclosure furnishings to provide visual barriers and opportunities to exceed the height of visitors. Additional to this, they have an inside house which is separated into an on-show nest box area, and a near replicated off-show area.

Findings: Bintu-wrong Hypotheses

‘Zoo visitors’ were considered within two simultaneous methodologies, where both a numerical

recording of visitor presence at the enclosure was taken, as well as a note of whether the

observation day fell within or outside of the school summer holidays. Weather conditions were also noted down at the start of each sample period to have a look at any further potential links.

Visitor Numbers

Out of sight behaviour decreased significantly when higher visitor numbers were recorded. This

behaviour was also found to be separately linked to thermal comfort. The female and baby spent significantly more time in the outdoor enclosure in warmer weather, specifically in

temperatures exceeding 21°C.

School Holidays

Both allogrooming and grooming behaviours were found to significantly increase during the

school holidays compared to during term time. Allogrooming was most frequently expressed as a maternal care behaviour, and later became reciprocated by the baby, highlighting that the formation of their social bond occurred regardless of the higher visitor season; implying that visitors were of no negative influence.

Locomotion, vigilance, feeding, enclosure resting and nest box resting were also behaviours of

focus during the study, but neither visitor condition found any significant differences in expression. Contrary to predictions, the overall findings suggest that the binturongs positively perceived zoo visitors, and that they potentially act as a source of enrichment; which has been found in several other species.

The Future

Although my findings are very positive, it is still only the beginning for studying this species both as a whole and in the context of the visitor effect. Individual temperament likely plays a big factor in these findings, and as with all research, the opportunity to expand the study to become multi- institutional would really help to increase the validity of the conclusions.

The activity budgets collected during this could contribute to other research efforts, comparing

different social groupings or the influence of enclosure design on behaviour. These could be used in multiple contexts, in informing in-situ conservation, or updating husbandry practices for ex-situ populations.

Viverrid Conservation Education

To finish on a slight tangent, one of my favourite aspects of completing my research was having the opportunity to interact with visitors. A lot of people asked out of all the animals in the world, ‘why would you want to study binturongs?’, which was something that stayed motivational until, well the present day really. Aside from their prehensile tail, supinating ankles, popcorn smell, and having possibly the best ears in the animal kingdom, the question of why I would want to study them is pretty much the very reason I decided to.

Getting to introduce visitors to one of my favourite animals, a species most had never heard of let alone seen before, was exciting and I had so many positive interactions with people who were just so curious about them. Starting those conversations that spark pro-conservation behaviour is so important, and demonstrates how valuable ex-situ populations are in raising awareness of these underrepresented species.

Getting to be a part of Viverrid conservation in my own little way through the opportunities that have come from research has been a privilege, and I want to say a massive thank you to anyone who helped along the way!

Author bio:

Emily recently graduated from University Centre Reaseheath having completed BSc (Hons) Zoo Management, where she chose to study binturongs for her dissertation research. She has always favoured the more ‘unusual’ and underappreciated species when visiting different zoos, so naturally took an interest in binturongs when she saw them for the first time as a child. They were a species unlike anything she had seen before, and after questioning what they could possibly be related to, she became fascinated by Viverridae. Emily have since been fortunate enough in more recent years as an Animal Keeper to work with two species from this family within BIAZA zoos; a pair of African civets and a Pardine genet.