A multi-enclosure study investigating the behavioural response of meerkats to zoo visitors

•We studied the effect of visitors on three small groups of zoo meerkats.•We studied meerkat response to regulated and unregulated visitor conditions.•Signage and presence of personnel effectively reduced intensity of visitor behaviour.•Meerkats did not adjust their behaviour in response to the change in visitor conditions.

The scientific literature indicates that visitors may affect both the behaviour and welfare of zoo animals. Captive born slender-tailed meerkats, Suricata suricatta, at three exhibits were studied under two treatments (1) unregulated visitor behaviour and (2) regulated visitor behaviour, where signage was positioned requesting visitors to be quiet and not to interact with the animals. At each exhibit, treatments were imposed using a four-replicate paired comparison design, with each pair consisting of 2 consecutive days of different treatments. Meerkat behaviour and location were recorded using instantaneous sampling every 2 min over a total of 72 h across exhibits. The efficacy of the regulated treatment in moderating visitor behaviour was evaluated by recording visitor noise using a decibel logger and by assessing the intensity of visitor behaviour (scale of 0–2 from passively observing to actively attempting to gain the animals’ attention) every 2 min during each observation period. The regulated treatment was successful in reducing visitor noise at each exhibit by around 32% (from 55 to 51 dBA, P = 0.0001). Furthermore, while there was a significant interaction of exhibit with treatment (P = 0.013), the regulated treatment reduced the score of intensity of visitor behaviour at each exhibit. However, despite good experimental precision, the regulated treatment did not change the distance meerkats positioned themselves from visitors (regulated 2.9 m and unregulated 3.1 m, P = 0.2) or the proportion of time they engaged in vigilant behaviour (regulated 0.34 and unregulated 0.32, P = 0.6) or the proportion of time spent looking towards visitors (regulated 0.42 and unregulated 0.46, P = 0.4), indicating that the meerkats at the three study exhibits were behaviourally unresponsive to variation in the intensity of visitor behaviour.