Strategies for improving the quality and accessibility of captive animal ethograms

Accurate behaviour identification and monitoring is essential in captive populations for monitoring welfare and assessing the effectiveness of biomedical or environmental interventions. To quantify behaviour accurately, reliably, and systematically, a well-defined ethogram is crucial, yet for many species these are not readily available. The initial aim of this project was to construct a comprehensive ethogram for captive Rhesus macaques, however in doing so significant issues with the ethogram landscape were identified. These are summarised in this paper, alongside a discussion of approaches for improving the landscape. Seven key issues were identified, across two categories: 1) problems with definitions and utilisation, 2) lack of accessibility and sharing. To alleviate such problems moving forward, we suggest generating ‘primary’ ethograms for study species, conducting substantial preliminary observations prior to data collection, ensuring all decisions and discussions during data collection are published alongside ethograms, including accompanying videos, and making ethograms accessible to all. We have successfully implemented these recommendations with Rhesus macaques, and encourage researchers to apply similar techniques for their study species. Our Rhesus macaque ethogram is published open-access on the online platform OSF (Open Science Framework). Open-access material is freely accessible to all, allowing others to utilise the ethogram without paying a fee. Feedback from users is invited in order that the ethogram be continually refined.