Environmental enrichment, also known as behavioral enrichment, is defined by the Honolulu Zoo website as techniques that "improve or enhance zoo environments for animals, stimulating them to investigate and interact with their surroundings." Basically, zoos know that wild animals are healthier when kept in an environment that simulates their natural habitat, and happier when they can use their skills and abilities.
Zoo Animals Hunting for Food
Proper diet and exercise can go a long way in keeping an animal healthy, but it's simply not enough. As the Honolulu Zoo website explains, the traditional method of feeding animals from a bin or pan does little to satisfy their hunting or gathering desires. This is where the technique of foraging comes in. The website uses their foraging enrichment for the Patas Monkey as it's example. In the Patas Monkey exhibit, different treats and foods are hidden in the exhibit, buried under leaves or wood chips.
This lets the intelligent and inquisitive monkeys use their natural ability to find food. Instead of simply stopping by a bin full of nuts, they must dig through the materials to find a treat. Where feeding might be a 20 minute activity before enrichment, foraging makes it into an all day event for the animals.
Similar techniques are used for carnivores such as lions and tigers. Although it's unusual for a zoo to release live prey into their exhibits, the National Zoo website lists some ways zookeepers simulate the hunt. Many zoos drop easily mauled materials, like cardboard boxes, marked with zebra or camel scent into the exhibits. Meat and parts of prey are also hidden in the enclosure, and fish eating predators might get a few goldfish a week to chase and catch.
Hiding and Digging
Although many plains dwelling animals are used to staying out in the open all of the time, many small animals need shelter to feel safe and secure. Lemurs, meerkats, and even pandas all need time away from crowds and unfamiliar things to avoid becoming stressed out. Animals that aren't allowed to have private time, and that are constantly stressed by unnatural interactions, can develop repetitive behaviors known as stereotypies. As explained in Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin, "stereotypies are defined as abnormal behaviors are that repetitive, invariant, ... and seemly pointless."
Anyone who's ever seen a tiger, or even a pet dog, pacing the length of its enclosure has witnessed stereotypy. But simply putting in a box or shed isn't enough for some animals. In the wild, meerkats live in large, inter-connected burrows. If a zoo provides them with these burrows, or lets them dig their own, they are much happier and less stressed than meerkats who only have an unnatural shelter. Birds also require the right kind of nest. The National Zoo website outlines the different nests it gives to each species of bird. One generic nest doesn't work for all types of birds, and could lead to destructive behavior like feather picking.
Training Programs as Enrichment
Training is a big part of many zoo enrichment programs, especially for intelligent animals that are required to learn new behaviors on a regular basis in the wild. Temple Grandin explains that training stimulates an animal's mind, by teaching it something new, much like a human's mind is stimulated by learning a new language.
Training doesn't always simulate a natural behavior, but it's still a helpful technique. At the Colchester Zoo website they explain the training that a sea lion receives. The sea lions are trained to extend their flippers in a specific way, so the zoo veterinarians can take blood samples or administer shots much easier. Learning the pose also mentally stimulates the sea lion. Training is common for highly intelligent animals such as elephants, gorillas, other primates, and parrots.
Even Invertebrates Get to Have Fun
All captive animals benefit from realistic habitats and interaction. Even invertebrates benefit from enrichment techniques - the National Zoo website lists activities like introducing new objects for an octopus to investigate, or giving a roach colony an old Halloween pumpkin to eat. Animals are used to using their minds and bodies everyday to find food and escape predators, and can suffer if put in an empty cage. Stimulated animals are happier and healthier, and avoid developing destructive or useless behavior patterns.
See Behavioral and Animal Enrichment for more information on enrichment and how it is used by both zoo keepers and pet owners.
Sources:
Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin, Wiley Press (2007).
Honolulu Zoo website
National Zoo website
Colchester Zoo website, http://www.colchester-zoo.co.uk/
 |
