Although there are many things that go into an enrichment program in order to make it successful over the long term we believe that these things can be boiled down into 5 key elements. Natural History– A thorough understanding of an animals natural history will allow you to create species specific enrichment opportunities resulting in […]
The Five Elements of a Successful Enrichment Program Read More »
For this article I will be discussing what I view as a “behavioural husbandry overview” for felids. This article will include the various forms of felid enrichment and training that can be used effectively on felids, both large and small, within a zoo setting. Felids are some of my favourite animals to work with due
Felid enrichment overview Read More »
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
Using Training as an Enrichment Tool Read More »
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 »
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
Community Involvement in Enrichment Programs Read More »
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
Foraging time in Zoos and Aquariums Read More »
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
Top 3 Myths about Zoos Debunked Read More »
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
Contrafreeloading in Zoos and Aquariums Read More »
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 »
In the last article I wrote, we covered the benefits of zoos and aquariums and how they are helping protect endangered species from the threat of extinction. Since we covered a few of the animals’ zoos and aquariums have saved, I thought it would be good to talk about some animals that still need saving.
8 Of The Worlds Most Endangered Species Read More »
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