DOI: 10.5061/dryad.pk0p2ngsp
title: Data and code for: The welfare problems of wide-ranging Carnivora reflect naturally itinerant lifestyles

description: Carnivora with naturally small annual home ranges can
 adjust well to the evolutionarily new environment of captivity,
 but wider-ranging species are vulnerable to stress. To investigate why, we
 identified eight correlates of home range size (reflecting energetic
 needs, movement, intra-specific interactions, and itinerant lifestyles).
 We systematically assessed whether these correlates
 predict welfare better than range size itself, using data on
 captive juvenile mortality (from 13,518 individuals
 across 42 species) and stereotypic route-tracing (456 individuals, 27
 species). Rather than large ranges per
 se, itinerant lifestyles (quantified via
 ratios of daily to annual travel distances in nature) were found
 to confer risk, predicting greater captive juvenile losses and stereotypic
 time-budgets. This result advances our understanding of the evolutionary basis for welfare problems in captive Carnivora, helping to explain why naturally sedentary species (e.g. American mink) may breed even in intensive farm conditions, while others (e.g. polar bears, giant pandas) can struggle even in modern zoos/breeding centres. Naturally itinerant lifestyles involve decision-making and strategic shifts to new locations, suggesting that supplying more novelty, cognitive challenge and/or opportunities for control will be effective ways to meet these animals' motivational needs in captivity.  Such findings could therefore assist with both collection planning and enclosure design.
description: Data come from a range of sources; detailed collection methods
 are given in the Supporting Material with our paper. Route-tracing (an
 outcome) time-budgets for 27 captive Carnivora species, along with some
 husbandry data, came from a database comprising behavioural records
 collected between 1950–2016, and were gleaned via literature searches 
 [also see 1, 2]. Inclusion criteria are described elsewhere [1, 2]. A
 second outcome variable, captive juvenile mortality rates of zoo-housed 42
 Carnivora species between 2010–2019, came from Roller et al., [3].
 Predictor variables describing wild annual home range sizes and 12
 potential correlates were collected via literature searches [for methods
 and inclusion criteria see: 1, 2], and from published databases and papers
 [4–15]. For data collected via literature searches (e.g., route-tracing;
 annual home range size), we calculated species medians for those values
 (reported in our dataset).
description: <strong>Data and code for: Should
 I stay or should I go? The welfare problems of wide-ranging Carnivora
 reflect naturally itinerant
 lifestyles</strong> The files given here provide everything
 needed to replicate our results and three figures (Figures 2, 3 and S1).
 See Table S3 for full descriptions of calculations.
 Data files are suitable for use in Excel
 and/or R. Missing values indicated with
 'NA'. An older dataset of previous work by us
 [2] was used for analyses shown in Table S2. This dataset is in a separate
 .csv file, and its metadata is described under its own heading
 below.  <strong>Metadata for main
 analyses:</strong> Species: species scientific
 name Common_name: species common name
 RT: median % observations route-tracing
 Prop_no_FE: proportion of captive
 animals that did not (/unknown if they did) receive foraging
 enrichments Med_cover: median provision of cover
 within the enclosures of captive animals (ranked: 1 = poorest – 4 =
 best) CJM: captive juvenile mortality rates [%
 juveniles dying before 365 days; from 3] CIM: captive infant mortality rates [%
 infants dying before 30 days; see 1, 2] AEO: age when eyes first open [days;
 from 4] AHR: median annual home range size
 (km<sup>2</sup>; literature searches)
 CV: AHR’s coefficient of variation
 BM: body mass [kg; from
 4] IMN: individual metabolic need [from or
 calculated following: 5, 13, 14] GMN: group metabolic need [IMN x
 population size; the latter taken from 7, and following
 12] Pro: regional productivity
 [g/m<sup>2</sup>; calculated using values from: 4, 6,
 8] TN: trophic niche. From [4] and
 simplified to 1 = carnivores and 0 = omnivores/herbivores
 HM: % of diet that is self-hunted meat
 [from 15] Dens: population density [n animals per
 km<sup>2</sup>; from 4] T: territoriality. From [11]: 1 =
 territorial (defended home range); 0 = non-territorial (undefended home
 range) P: predation risk. From [9]: 1 = one or
 more known predator(s) (of adult animals); 0 = no reported predators (of
 adult animals) DDT: median daily distance travelled
 (km; literature searches) HV: hippocampal volume [ml; from
 10] BVOL: brain volume [ml; from
 10] DD_AD: ratio daily: annual travel
 distances calculated using AHR and DDT.
   <strong>Metadata for
 Kroshko et al. [2] dataset (Table S2)</strong> 
 As above with the following extra
 describing species-typical husbandry: Med_encl: median enclosure size
 (m2) Med_vert: median ranked score for
 vertical complexity within the enclosure (1 = poorest – 4 =
 best) Prop_same_social: proportion
 housed in similar social grouping as per the wild Med_meals: median meal frequency
 per day Prop_fed_am: proportion fed in
 the morning (or morning and afternoon) versus afternoon only
 Med_diet_div: median diet
 diversity (count of different food types) Prop_starve: proportion of
 animals that have 1 or more starve days each week  Prop_process: proportion of
 animals fed an entirely processed diet Med_study: median date of papers
 contributing to captive animal species summary statistics
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