Native to Africa, giraffes are browsers and are known to forage for tree bark as well as leaves in captivity. However, their preference for tree bark remains unclear. Therefore, in this study, we investigated their preference through behavioral observations at the Kyoto city zoo. The study period was divided into the green leaf (May-August) and deciduous (October-February) seasons based on the availability of trees. The tree species given in this study were Japanese white oak, cherry blossom, locust tree, lace bark elm, bayberry, Japanese hackberry, and glossy privet that are available in Kyoto, Japan. The results showed that bark foraging on locust tree and lace bark elm was significantly high (P < 0.01), while that Japanese white oak and Japanese hackberry was significantly (P < 0.01) low. This indicates that giraffes have a preference for bark. The foraging scores/kg tended to increase for bark-foraging species (rs = 0.56 or 0.75, P < 0.01), suggesting that feeding giraffes with bark-preferred tree species may promote species-specific behaviors in giraffe foraging enrichment.
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