Research project on the welfare of western lowland gorillas in Dutch zoos
Biology
An important part of your Master's is the Research Project, a 9-month project in which students complete a full research process. Over the past few months, I have been working on my Research Project for the Environmental Biology major. I am happy to tell you more about it below.
Choosing a topic
At the beginning of the first year, a list of projects was shared within my chosen track: Behavioural Ecology. This list included possible topics for my Research project. I was lucky because, after consulting with a supervisor, I was allowed to start working on my preferred project; a research project on the welfare of western lowland gorillas in Dutch zoos.
Observing behaviour with tablet, camera and clipboard
To collect the data, I went to four Dutch zoos, where I spent about six to eight weeks collecting data. Each day I went to work with a tablet, camera and clipboard to observe the gorillas' behaviour. At first you spend some time practising recognising each gorilla, but you quickly become good at that. On the tablet, I kept track of all gorilla behaviour in a special programme for 15 minutes each time. In between the observations I did scans, in which I documented all gorilla's and the distances between them on a laminated card of their nest. With the camera, I made videos of the group before they were fed, so I could determine all the behaviour very precisely afterwards at home. After collecting all the data, I got to work on the analyses and the writing process.
Interesting stories, insights and valuable discussions
Collecting data on behaviour was super educational. For example, you learn to work independently and accurately, but you also learn a lot about recognising behaviour and its nuances. Doing research in a zoo was a very cool experience on its own as well. For example, you work closely with the animal keepers. These people are often full of interesting stories and can tell you a lot about the individual animals, and they also like to hear what you see as a researcher. So you can learn a lot from each other. What I personally also found very interesting about this project was working at so many different zoos. After all, people (and animals) are slightly different everywhere, which sometimes requires a different approach, but which leads to other insights and valuable discussions. Uniquely for my project, I made the observations at zoos at the time of the corona pandemic. This often made me one of the few people present in the zoo. It was very intimate to be able to sit so close to a gorilla group for weeks and watch their daily lives.
The picture complete
To hand in a beautiful report about animals you had the privilege of observing yourself and knowing that it will be read by the people you worked with, completed the picture for me. All in all, I learnt a huge amount about behavioural research, myself, gorillas and zoos during the process. So I am happy to look back at this project, and take the lessons with me for the next project.