Thursday, June 16, 2011

Enrichment

Enrichment is an important part of everyday life for the animals at the zoo, and along with training it is a great way to keep them busy throughout the day and discourage stereotypical behaviors.  Training itself is considered a form of enrichment as it stimulates the animal both physically and mentally.  Many other forms of enrichment such as puzzle feeders, treats hidden in toys, browse, and buried produce use food motivation to encourage different behaviors in animals.  For example, puzzle feeders are large paint buckets filled with food with holes cut in the sides, and are given to giraffe.  Stereotypical behavior in giraffe often includes oral fixations such as licking non-food items (fences and metal poles) and tongue rolling.  These behaviors in captive animals often originate because the giraffe is not encouraged to exercise its tongue as much as it would in the wild.  Puzzle feeders help to remedy this behavior because the giraffe has to use its tongue to obtain the grain, produce or treats.

Treats hidden in toys, boxes, or buried in the ground encourage are used with a wide variety of animals at the zoo including eland, grifffon vultures and the big cats.  This form of enrichment encourages an animals seeking behavior, which is essential to animals in the wild.  The more a zoo, or any establishment with animals (stables, kennels, animal shelters, ect...), can encourage natural behaviors the better off an animal will be, and fewer stereotypical behaviors will be able to present themselves.


In the background of this picture the white bucket and hanging crate are examples of puzzle feeders that encourage giraffes to use their tongues as they would in the wild.

Giraffes have long agile tongues

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