Articles/ Discussion

Measuring Demeanour- A Qualitative Tool to Assess Animal Welfare

What is demeanour and why would we measure it? Demeanour is defined as “outward behaviour or bearing”. When looking at the demeanour of an animal, we are referring to the outward expression of how that animal is feeling and expressing itself at a given moment. Assessing demeanour is something that animal care staff will generally …

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Learn to Soar- Dealing with Burnout in the Animal Care Industry

Vultures are birds of prey that have several unique and recognizable characteristics including feeding on carrion and their trademark “bald” heads, but one of their most recognizable characteristics is their flight patterns. In Ontario, Canada, where I live, it is extremely common to drive by a farmer’s field in the summer and see several vultures …

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Animal Observations and Creating a Behaviour Baseline

I have written many articles about the benefits of a goal based enrichment programs and how to implement them into an animal care facility. In these articles I have looked extensively on the goal setting process and defining what success looks like, particularly with individual enrichment items, but how do we measure success on the …

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How to Think Critically and Make Better Decisions in Animal Care

The Most Important Skill in Animal Care The act of caring for an animal, whether exotic or domesticated, is generally not that hard, people have been caring for animals for thousands of years, with a great deal of success. However, as we learn more about animal behaviour and as the science around what they really …

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Why enrichment isn’t an “extra”

Enrichment for captive animals comes in many forms, from scent based enrichment, social enrichment and environmental enrichment. In many animal care institutions across the world enrichment is still considered to be an “extra” and not part of the normal day to day husbandry routine. Im writing this article to give a definitive argument as to …

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How to Come up with and Implement Novel Enrichment Ideas

There are many challenges animal care professionals face in the day to day implementation of a high quality enrichment program. Time and money constraints are often some of the biggest hurdles to jump through to deliver the animal effective enrichment. One of the largest roadblocks animal care staff can run into is coming up with …

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