Health and Welfare of Captive Reptiles

This extensively revised and expanded new edition offers concepts, principles and applied information that relates to the wellbeing of reptiles. As a manual on health and welfare in a similar vein to volumes addressing the sciences of anatomy, behaviour or psychology, this book thoroughly examines the biology of reptile welfare and is about meeting biological needs.  

The editors, acknowledged experts in their own right, have once again drawn together an extremely impressive international group of contributors. Positive and negative implications of general husbandry and research programs are discussed. In addition to greatly revised original content are nine new chapters offering readers novel insight into:

• sensory systems

• social behaviour

• brain and cognition

• controlled deprivation and enrichment

•effects of captivity-imposed noise and light disturbance on welfare

•spatial and thermal factors

•evidential thresholds for species suitability in captivity

• record keeping as an aid to captive care

•arbitrary husbandry practices and misconceptions

The authors have adopted a user-friendly writing style to accommodate a broad readership. Although primarily aimed at academic professionals, this comprehensive volume is fundamentally a biology book that will also inform all involved in captive reptile husbandry. Among others, zoo personnel, herpetologists, veterinarians, lab animal scientists, and expert readers in animal welfare and behavioural studies will benefit from this updated work.    

Clifford Warwick is an independent human medical scientist and reptile biologist. He holds several advanced professional qualifications specializing in reptile science, as well as a PhD in reptile welfare biology. He has produced approximately 150 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and books, mostly concerning the biology and welfare of reptiles, with a focus on anthropogenic impacts. 
Phillip C. Arena is an awarded educator and functional morphologist specialising in reptile biology, health and welfare. He has published material on the anaesthesia, anatomy and physiology of reptiles and contributed to key investigations on the impact of farming and recreational practices on the lives of reptiles, including rattlesnakes, marine turtles and crocodiles.  

Gordon M. Burghardt is Alumni Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee. He has published widely on reptile behaviour, behavioural development and evolution, captive animal issues, animal play and conceptual and historical aspects of animal ethology and comparative psychology.