I spend a lot of time writing articles about various enrichment devices, techniques and concepts like contrafreeloading, but “enrichment” is just a part of a behavioural husbandry program in an animal care facility, the other major piece of the program is training. That is why in today’s post we are going to be taking a …
In this podcast we will answer the question, what is animal enrichment? We will go over the types of enrichment applied in a zoo and aquarium setting as well as how these various forms of enrichment can be used effectively. Read the article version HERE. Podcast available on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play.
We are living in some crazy times right now due to the impact COVID-19 is having on our lives. One of the major impacts it has had is forcing the mass closure of non essential businesses all over the world including many Zoos and Aquariums. While it may be disheartening for animal care staff to …
Six projects to do when your facility is closed to the public Read More »
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One of the hardest things about implementing an enrichment program is finding the resources to do so. Great enrichment programs are very material intensive and this can be daunting for facilities that do not have a lot of resources at their disposal (I think its fair to say most animal care facilities fall under this …
The Importance of Foraging time When you break down the day to day life of many species, it generally breaks down into two main pursuits, the pursuit of a mate and the pursuit of resources, which is generally food and water. The definition of foraging is to obtain food and resources from a place, and …
Today I’ve decided to try to tackle some of the more common myths I hear people saying about Zoos, in person and on the internet. Myths like this get perpetuated mainly though people anthropomorphizing (more on this later) what they are seeing in animal care institutions. Thre are also a number of anti-zoo organizations that …
We haven’t done one of these build articles in a little while, so I figured I’d come back with something simple, useful and fun! This hanging food enrichment barrel is simply a large 50 Gallon plastic barrel with some holes cut into it. The barrel is then hung in an exhibit to act as a …
In this post, I am going to be talking about the fundamentals of Contrafreeloading as it relates to a Zoological setting. I believe Contrafreeloading to be an extremely valuable concept when designing an enrichment program for a wide variety of animals in captivity and have talked about it before in “A Modern Guide to Environmental …
For this article, I have decided to go in-depth into what I think a great enrichment program for zoos and aquariums should look like. Ever since I became fascinated with animal enrichment I have been experimenting with a variety of techniques and devices and have thought a lot about what I think works best for …
A Modern Guide to Environmental Enrichment in Zoos and Aquariums Read More »
