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lthough enrichment for zoo animals may seem like it just involves giving them toys to play with, there is actually a vital reason as to why these things have to be provided. The keeper’s main role is to make sure that the animals are looked after properly and that they are healthy and happy. Any enrichment that is provided is intended to encourage the natural behaviours of each individual species. These could include things such as foraging, tracking, swimming etc. This keeps the animals active both physically and mentally and ensures they do not become bored or stressed. If this were to happen it could bring about several worrying behavioural, developmental or health problems. Keepers maintain a close observation over the animals they are in charge of and if they notice any problems they act immediately to concoct the best plan of action to ensure that it is put right and there are no lasting, damaging effects. To prevent this, the animals are provided with activities that will encourage them to spend their day performing natural behaviours for a similar amount of
There are several different ways in which enrichment is provided to captive animals. Each zoo has their own system of providing these tasks and activities, but they all have the same effect of encouraging and promoting natural instinctual behaviours. The main types of enrichment that zoos supply are environmental enrichment, food or toy based enrichment, enrichment from interaction and sensory enrichment. They all play a vital role in supporting the animals and encouraging instinctive behaviours, therefore enabling them to live as natural a life as possible whilst still being in captivity. Enrichment also gives the animals the ability to make choices giving them some control over their environment as well as offering a chance for new experiences. These highly stimulating environments all contribute towards keeping the animals happy and healthy, both physically and psychologically, whilst providing an engaging and interesting life for them. Many zoos that use enrichment techniques keep an enrichment diary to monitor what has been used and how it was perceived. This is because, although studies have shown how enrichment can help, it can also give rise to unfavourable behaviours such as stress or aggression which is the opposite of what enrichment programmes aim to achieve.
Enrichment Techniques
Enriching Environments The enclosures that the animals are kept in are very important for them. Zoos try to make them as close to the natural environment the inhabitants come from as possible. To achieve this, the enclosures will include a variety of building materials or substrate to create different textures and to create levels in the enclosure or pools to swim in or cool down etc. The exhibit design will also include live and artificial plants to provide shade and barriers and to enhance the appearance. Keepers may place dead trees or other similar objects for animals to play with if this is the type of thing they would like. A number of different species may also be kept in one enclosure if they are compatible with the same enclosure. This allows for socialisation and a more realistic environment. What is included in each enclosure depends very much on the type of animal that is kept there, but creating an enriching environment can be doing something as simple as providing the animals with a choice, such as whether they prefer to sit in the shade provided by plants and trees or napping in the sun on a rock or even on an elevated platform. Enrichment from food This is the most common and well known form of enrichment. Keepers use this technique of food enrichment in a number of different ways depending on which system works best for a species. They could even use a number of different methods for one species if they appear to enjoy the challenge. Some methods keepers might use are
puzzle feeders, hiding food throughout the enclosure or simulating or using real prey. A puzzle feeder works well for primates as they are challenging and time consuming, which gives their brains a workout. This is vital for primates as they are so intelligent and therefore need a lot of mental stimulation. Hiding food about the enclosure is a good method for animals such as bears. This means they will use their natural instincts such as foraging which in the wild they would spend most of their day doing. Keepers might scatter food into piles of straw or hide it in crevices in tree trunks so that it is not readily obvious to the animals. Simulating live prey is used on predators such as big cats. By doing this the keeper ensures that predators keep their instinctual stalk and hunt technique that they would use to hunt in the wild. Each method is used to encourage and enhance natural behaviours. Enrichment from toys If you have ever owned a pet you will know the joy they get from playing. This is the same for animals in a zoo. Each species is given appropriate toys to play with to encourage natural behaviours but to also provide new experiences. This may all seem like a bit of fun but there is an important reason for doing this. If an animal becomes bored or stressed it can lead to serious behavioural and
health problems and as a keepers job is to look after the welfare of the animals this is the last thing they want. Toys that are handed out may include different sized balls, after all Elephants love to play football. Floatation aids are used to
keep the bears entertained whilst splashing about in their pool. Climbing structures are favoured by primates and smaller animals such as rodents love to run or hide through a maze of tunnels. Some zoos feel that man-made toys go against the aim of keeping the animals in an environment as close as possible to their natural habitat. These zoos will use natural materials or methods such as using trees for climbing, wood for floatation aids in pools or digging out ready-made tunnels for the animals to use.
supplements to be administered etc. Training also presents the animals with a choice to participate and enrichment is all about having a choice of a number of things. Animals also get interaction from the visitors to the zoo. This is clearly presented if you pay a visit to the primate enclosures. It is a common sight to see chimps and orangutans imitating the movements and expressions of the guests and provides entertainment and stimulation for both the visitors and the animals. All of the animals also profit from interacting with other species of their kind if they are used to existing in groups and some also get to interact with other species that would be common in their area if they were in the wild as they will often be combined in the same enclosure. As well as providing them interaction with other species this also creates a more realistic and natural setting.
Enrichment from interaction The keepers will often train daily with their animals either to check the animal is ok or to aid in research. By training with the animals in the zoo it can make working with them much easier. Keepers spend time earning the trust of the animals so that they will allow the keepers to get close to them without the staff being in too much danger. This allows for close observations to be carried out and allows for medical assistance or
Sensory Enrichment Olfactory enrichment is the act of introducing different scents into an enclosure. These scents could include smells they would experience in the wild, for instance, predator or prey scents, pheromones and sometimes novel scents such as spices. These smells can enhance enclosure exploration, encourage natural behaviours such as tracking or even stimulate reproduction. Auditory enrichment is achieved by playing
different sounds throughout the enclosure. These sounds replicate those that different species would hear in their natural environment. These sounds could include, but are not limited to, bird calls, other animals’ calls or their own species vocalizations. This enhances the animals’ experience of a natural habitat to prevent any physical or psychological problems that could arise from the animals living in an unnatural or unsuitable setting. Tactile enrichment includes a variety of stimuli, for example, environmental enrichment devices (EEDs) these are things that can be manipulated by the animals including materials with different textures such as wood, straw, burlap or soft blankets. Finally visual stimuli can again be provided by EEDs in different colours or that can float and be moved by water currants or wind. Other animals may also be put in the line of sight of other enclosures if they cannot be included in the same exhibit. Mirrors are also used to enrich a number of animals’ enclosures. We spoke to Stephanie Sanderson who works at Chester Zoo and has 12 years of experience as a wildlife clinician. Sanderson is also a part of a number of organisations in charge of animal welfare including the British and Irish Association of
Zoos and Aquariums Veterinary Advisory Group, the European Association of Wildlife Veterinarians and is a member of the DEFRA zoo liaison group.
now getting to work with them at such close quarters is pretty fun! And on top of that I’m making sure they’re happy and healthy and living a fulfilling life.
Hi Stephanie, thanks for talking with us. So what is your role at the zoo? Well my official title is Director of Living Collection, which basically means I’m in charge of the animals! Ha-ha. I look out for the animals’ health and welfare.
So I wanted to discuss Enrichment for the animals. How is enrichment provided to the animals of Chester zoo? Well we do this in a number of ways, some that you might not even notice or think of as enrichment. This might include things such as the enclosures themselves. We make sure that each species enclosure is as close to their natural habitat as possible by adding pools or rockery to aid climbing and even fallen trees. We also use scents and sounds to replicate the things the animals would hear or smell in the wild which visitors may not pick up on but it is all there to stimu-
And how long have you been working here at Chester Zoo? I’ve been here for 10 years now. So it’s a job that you really enjoy doing then? Oh it’s the best! I’ve always loved animals and
1. Aquarium containing several different species that would be found in the same habitat. This room also contained several small monkeys that were free to roam about. 2. Flamingos. 3. Speaker used for auditory enrichment. 4. Mother and baby orang-utan playing. This is also good practice for the infant. 5. Throwing apples into the bear enclosure for them to discover later. 6. Pruning the trees that grow naturally in the zoo. The clippings were placed in a bird enclosure as part of enrichment, to allow them to use the twigs as building materials. 7. Wild crows spotted visiting the llama enclosure. They proceeded to pull out the llamas coat and carry it off to use as padding for their nests. While the zoo animals are helping with research and education, they are also helping wild animals. 8. Plenty of opportunities to climb, swing and relax as they please. 9. Rhino House. 10. Duck and her ducklings. 11. Elephants love to play in water. Here they have their own pond and waterfall to play in and drink from. 12. A measure on the door of the giraffe house allows visitors to see the height of the giraffe. Good for educating visitors but also useful for the keepers to check the progress of the giraffes. 13. Even the inside viewing areas are designed to mimic natural territories as you can see by the prairie dogs inside enclosure. 14. Meerkat on look out. 15. These monkeys have a range of terrain in their enclosure as well as several posts and nets to allow for climbing.
late the animals. It all adds to the authenticity and familiarity for them. All species respond differently to each type of enrichment so we try to tailor their preferences towards what method we use with them. For example primates respond well to puzzle feeders. As they are so intelligent, they need extra stimulation, which that provides them with.
Above: Rhino house. Each enclosure gave the animals a choice to be inside or outside. Giving them choices is a big part of enrichment. Below: Even wild animals flourish at the zoo. This duck and her ducklings took full advantage of the river running through the zoo. Opposite: Elephants love to play in water. Here they have their own pond and waterfall to play in and drink from.
How important are these enrichment tasks to carry out? Oh exceptionally important. It encourages natural behaviours and provides the animals with a stimulating environment that helps both their physical and psychological welfare. If they were in the wild they would have to do everything themselves from finding food to building shelters but here all that is provided for them so we have to give them tasks to keep them occupied and stimulated. We might hide food in bails of straw or crevices in trees to get the bears foraging for it as they would in the wild. Also by carrying out activities with the animals it gets them used to the keepers. This gives us the chance to be in close contact with animals that we wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to be with, meaning we can easily carry out different research projects which helps us understand them more, whilst providing them with mental stimulation. Is this all carried out behind the scenes or have you found that visitors show an interest in how the animals are kept and what you do with them? Zoo visitors want to know that the animals are being well taken care of. We put on talks and shows throughout the day to help demonstrate to the visitors the type of work and research that we do here. The goal is to educate the children and hopefully teach the adults something new as well! Demonstrations that we put on allow the animals to exercise their mind and body and keep the visitors happy when they see the animals are happy. So it’s a win all round if everybody involved is having a good time.
Now you’re making it all sound like a bit of fun and games. But there are a large number of people who disagree with animals being kept in captivity. How would you justify keeping these animals in captivity? Well our main objective here at the zoo is to make sure the animals are receiving proper care and attention and we spend a great deal of our time doing checks, looking for any signs that there may be something wrong, either physically or psychologically. At the first sign that something is wrong we will do our best to correct whatever it may be. If they look injured we have specialist vets, if they appear distressed we send someone in to see what is causing the upset. Everyone that works here is an animal lover. We would never do anything with these animals that we thought may harm or upset them in anyway. But what about the fact that as much as you try it is not their natural environment? It may not be, but the animals are in good hands. They are well fed, well looked after with a good home. They have good relationships with the keepers whilst still keeping their natural instinc-
tual behaviours. You can see that the animals are in good condition. I don’t disagree with some of the people who say they shouldn’t be in captivity. If you look at places abroad, such as Thailand, there are hundreds of ‘monkey sanctuaries’ or ‘bear sanctuaries’ but more often than not they don’t offer any kind of sanctuary at all. Obviously there are some that do good, but they don’t have all these animal welfare laws the way we do here. The bad ones don’t look after them properly, they feed them the wrong diet, keep them locked up in tiny cages until they are forced to perform for an audience. The people running them are not trained in any way, they don’t offer them any kind of care, that to me is wrong. That is the kind of set up that people should be fighting to have shut down, not somewhere like this where you can see with your own eyes that these are happy, healthy, well looked after animals. The people who work here have done years of training and research to get to this level and to know how best to care for the animals under their supervision. So what’s the difference between the demonstrations you put on here and the ones you mentioned that happen abroad. Both animals are still performing for an audience. What makes it ok to do it in this situation?
We actually don’t do them the same way we used to anymore. Now we hold talks on specific animals at their enclosures but there are no performances anymore really. We just talk to the audience about the animals and try to make it interesting and inform them of things they might not have known before. So how come you changed how you hold the demonstrations and how come it was acceptable before you changed your method? We changed because the times have changed. Now if people see animals performing they are a lot more informed about the bad side that I mentioned happens in other countries. We didn’t want to be associated with that and have found that the talks go down just as well as the demonstrations did. When we had used to do them though, we gave the animals a choice. If they didn’t want to take part then they weren’t forced into anything and there were no repercussions. We didn’t chain them up or beat them to make them do it next time. We also didn’t make them perform for hours on end. Our demonstrations
Above: This is the perfect, high vantage point that meerkats look for in the wild so that they can get a better view of the whole landscape which allows them to see if any danger is close by. There is obviously no real threats to this mob of meerkats at the zoo, however you can see that enrichment is working as this meerkat is using its natural instinct to keep a lookout for anything that may be a threat to himself or the others. Right: These colobus monkeys have a range of terrain in their enclosure which provides several layers of interest to their exhibit. They also have plenty of nets and post to allow for plenty of climbing practice as they spend many hours perched on Bamboo stands.
typically were only half an hour long or less and after that the animals went back to their exhibit. Sometimes we’d cancel altogether if we felt the animal that was meant to be participating was not up to it that day. We always keep the animals welfare in mind above everything else. Whereas in other places, that is how they earn a living. They have to make sure that the animals will perform and as they don’t know any better they often use cruel measures to ensure this. Now the most well-known problem that people outside of the zoo community knows about is stereotypy, which is most common in carnivores such as big cats or bears. Can you tell us what stereotypy is and why and how you try to stop these behaviours from occurring? Stereotypic behaviour is the act of repetitive movements, gestures, sounds etc. In a zoo environment it often presents itself as rocking or pacing in the animals, as you said mainly in bears or big cats but it has been observed in other species as well. This type of behaviour is often blamed on boredom but research has also found that predictability and not being able to control certain aspects such as when they receive food can also contribute to this type of behaviour. At the first sign of it in any of our animals we are straight in there trying to fathom out what we can change to improve their lives. Ok Stephanie. Thanks again for speaking with us today, it’s been a pleasure.
M
any people might argue that if the point of these enrichment tasks is to keep and encourage natural behaviours in captive animals then surely it would make sense to stop putting them in situations that might mean they lose these instincts. However there is a whole host of different projects and work that goes on behind the scenes of zoos that we often don’t get to see or even realise is happening. Enrichment is just the tip of the
iceberg. There is also often conservation projects, research projects, campaigns etc. that the animals contribute to just by being available. This allows for improvements to their care as well as helping researchers with their work into conservation, breeding, resources, new discoveries or campaigns. Researchers carry out most of their work out
of the public view but the animals are very much on display to visitors. This is part of educating visitors and can provide them with new experiences. Visitors’, adults and children alike, can momentarily form a bond with an animal that they probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to do anywhere else and they take that experience away with them. The hope is that this could spark their involvement in a conservation programme or something similar and start helping animals themselves so the research, enrichment and fun of the zoo all come full circle. The bottom line is, if we want to keep zoos open and running and doing their best for animal welfare, research and educational purposes, then enrichment plays as vital a part as the right nutrition and veterinary supervision, of the care that keepers and researchers provide for the animals. By designing a multifaceted, stimulating, and engaging environment for the animals they house, they are making the lives of each species as natural as possible in an unnatural existence. In the wild, animals must find food, defend territories, escape predators and build homes. In zoos, the majority of animals’ needs are provided by the keepers, so other methods of physical and mental stimulation must be provided to encourage natural behaviours. As much as possible, a zoo environment is designed to mimic an animal’s natural environment. Whether this is enough or not will always be debated. If you want to get involved in any sort of conservation or are just interested in doing some research of what goes on at the zoo for yourself, visit the following websites. http://www.chesterzoo.org/ http://www.actforwildlife.org.uk/ Or to keep up to date with what’s new at the zoo give them a follow on twitter or instagram. Twitter: @chesterzoo Instagram: @chesterzoo