Enrichment

Have you ever walked through a pet store and been amazed at the quantity of bones, balls and other items available for our pets today? Many pet owners recognize the rewards of providing our pets with stimulating activities. This idea is also used for wild animals in captivity. Visitors at a zoo may see a polar bear licking at a block of ice with frozen fish inside, or a chimp using a stick to remove food hidden inside a log. Zoo visitors may not realize that as they watch animals interacting on exhibit, they are likely witnessing the zoo's carefully designed animal enrichment efforts.

What Is Enrichment?

The Random House College Dictionary defines enrich as “to add greater value or significance to.”

Environmental or behavioral enrichment is achieved by adding to a captive animal’s environment or by modifying that environment to stimulate behaviors resembling those of a healthy wild animal (Shepherdson, 1992a.) Enrichment is intended to encourage behaviors that are appropriate for the species, and that satisfy an animal’s physical and psychological needs. For example, improvements in exhibit structure, feeding schedule or social grouping may reduce stereotypical behaviors, such as pacing or over-grooming, as well as promote behaviors which resemble those observed in the wild. An enriched environment should also offer a captive animal some sense of control, resulting from its ability to make choices for itself, such as whether or not to hide, what kind of temperature and weather to experience and when and how to acquire food, etc.

An added benefit is that provision of novel stimulus may help captive animals maintain their ability to adapt to change and stress in their environment. Wild counterparts daily make choices in their reactions to stressors, such as predators, lack of food and inclement weather. Animals that do not cope well with stress are less likely to make appropriate choices. Enrichment can provide a controlled method of exposing animals to stress and maintaining their ability to adapt to new situations.