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 …
Measuring Demeanour- A Qualitative Tool to Assess Animal Welfare Read More »
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 …
Learn to Soar- Dealing with Burnout in the Animal Care Industry Read More »
Are you Leaving Welfare on the Table? When caring for any animal in captivity, we all know it is imperative to keep their current welfare state in the back of your mind at all times, constantly looking for ways in which we can improve it or at the very least, stop it from declining. However, …
Domestic Animals Need Enrichment Too I was lucky enough to grow up on a horse farm and be around horses and the equine industry for most of my life. When I was a bit older I started my career in the zoo and exotics world and one of the things that struck me the most …
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 …
Animal Observations and Creating a Behaviour Baseline Read More »
Individual vs The Species When we talk about enrichment for a given animal, one of the first topics that generally comes up is the need to think about natural behaviours that the animals wild counterparts would be displaying on a day to day basis. While I still think this is one of the most important …
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 …
How to Think Critically and Make Better Decisions in Animal Care Read More »
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 …
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 …
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