Download ppt - 1 © Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008 ANIMAL ENRICHMENT Lorne Roberts; CAC; Unitec; 2014

1© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008

ANIMAL ENRICHMENT

Lorne Roberts; CAC; Unitec; 2014

ENRICHMENT

“An elephant’s rich array of diverse individual and social behaviour is as much a part of what makes it an elephant as its trunk and huge feet”.


Enrichment Programme

• Enrichment 101

• The Big Names

• What’s in a Word?

• What are we Enriching?

• Ignorance is Bliss

• What you see!

• The Challenge of Challenging

Enrichment 101

Animals in Unnatural Human Environments

and Dependent on Humans for Survival


Human environments may be extremely bland unstimulating and unrecognisable for animals

Enrichment 101


Enrichment 101

Animals require access to environments that stimulate them to function behaviourally, physiologically and cognitively similarly to their native counterparts


Captive v Wild Environments

•Huge variation within environment•Large-scale changes of environment •Natural pressures are life & death•Habitat size - extensive

•Small variation within environment•Small-scale changes of environment

•Natural pressures of little significance•Habitat size - reduced

Captive v Wild Environments

•Unpredicatable•Requirement for choice•Natural for species

•Must work for survival

•Complex

•Predictable•Limited choice

•Unnatural for species•Limited activity required for survival•Simple

Must Understand Their Natural Environment

Foods and their presentation

Ecology

Climate

Substrate and Topography

Conspecifics/Contraspecifics – type and number

Aspect

Enrichment 101

Enrichment is the process by which animals held in human environments may be stimulated to behave, think and function naturally across natural timeframes


An Animal Husbandry Principle that seeks to enhance the quality of captive animal care by identifying and providing the environmental stimuli necessary for optimal psychological, physical and physiological well-being


Enrichment

Psychological, Physical and PhysiologicalWell-being

CaptiveBreeding

Educationof public Release

Programmes

Natural PressuresInnapropriate for Captive Environments

• Actual Predator/prey interactions

• Starvation and thirst

• Malnutrition

• Disease/Injury

• Extreme environmental conditions (???)

• Constant or extreme conspecific or contrapecific aggression


The Big Names

Hediger, H. 1950. Wild Animals in Captivity. London: Butterworths.

Hediger, H. 1955. Studies of the Psychology and Behaviour of Captive Animals in Zoos and Circuses. London: Butterworths.

Hediger, H. 1969. Man and Animal in the Zoo. New York: Lawrence/Delacorte Press.

Markowitz, H. 1982. Behavioural Enrichment in the Zoo. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.


The Big Names

Chamove, AS, & Anderson, JR. 1989. Examining environmental enrichment. In:Housing, Care and Psychological Wellbeing of Captive and Laboratory Primates. New Jersey: Noyes Publications.

Kleiman, DG, et al.1996. Wild Mammals in Captivity – Principles and Techniques. London: University of Chicago Press.

Shepherdson, DJ, et al. 1998. Second Nature – Environmental Enrichment for Captive Animals. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Young, RJ, et al. 2003. Environmental Enrichment for Captive Animals. Oxford: Blackwell Science.





• Animal enrichment research has escalated dramatically in the past 20 years

• And with it certain terminology has become fashionable

• Often, if the terminology is commonplace within the literature, this drives the practices

If this is true of enrichment, have we missed something?

‘What’s in a word?’



Possible confusion

Environmental Enrichment

versus

Behavioural Enrichment



Enrichment:

‘Environmental enrichment is a concept which describes how the environments of captive animals can be changed for the benefit of the inhabitants. Behavioural opportunities that may arise or increase as a result of environmental enrichment can be appropriately described as behavioural enrichment’

Shepherdson, DJ (1994)



Enrichment:

‘Environmental enrichment is an animal husbandry principle that seeks to enhance the quality of captive animal care by identifying and providing the environmental stimuli necessary for optimal psychological and physiological wellbeing’

Shepherdson, DJ (1998)



Enrichment:

Environmental enrichment ‘is a process for improving or enhancing zoo animal environments and care within the context of their inhabitants’ behavioral biology and natural history. It is a dynamic process in which changes to structures and husbandry practices are made with the goal of increasing behavioral choices to animals and drawing out their species appropriate behaviors and abilities, thus enhancing animal welfare’

BHAG (1999)


What’s in a word?

“Environmental enrichment is just as important as daily feeding and cleaning," says animal keeper/trainer Niki Ciezki. "It provides stimulation for the animals’ mental health by engaging them in natural behaviors they would display in the wild,”

Ciezki has been with the Phoenix Zoo for almost four years, and is the chair of the behavioral enrichment committee.

http://www.azfamily.com/pets/zoo/stories/KTVKLNews20070626_behavioral-enrichment.17d9db6c.html


Is it all the same? Isn’t all behavioural enrichment environmental enrichment?

Are they distinct?

What’s in a word?

EnvironmentalBehavioural

Environmental Behavioural


Is there a common ground?

If not all environmental enrichment is behavioural enrichment, what’s left?

What’s in a word?

Environmental

Environmental Behavioural

Behavioural


What’s in a word?

Can we not eschew obfuscation and espouse elucidation?

Can we avoid ambiguity and adopt clarity?


What’s in a word?

Can we just use the words:

Animal Enrichment?


What are we enriching?

Regardless of the previous definitions, uses and arguments;

A majority of the literature, research and practices involves overt and sometimes measurable

behavioural changes

IS THIS WHAT A MAJORITY OF THE BRAIN’S CAPACITY IS INVOLVED WITH?



Data

Data

Data

Data

Data

Data

INTERPRETRelevant Responses



But, the amount of stimuli in an enriched environment is huge!!

“The brain detects novel stimuli by continuously monitoring its environment, ignoring stimuli that remain unchanged but immediately attending to

anything that changes.”

Neuroscience by MC on November 30th, 2006



An Exercise - Think about your journey in today.

How many other people have you encountered already?

How many cars that were easily visible to you were red?

How many different brands of perfume/aftershave have you smelled today?

How many paving stones fit the width of the pavement you walked on?

How many houses were tagged with graffiti?

What cloud type was predominant in the sky?

How many bird species did you hear?

What is the tree species at the zoo’s car park entrance?



An Exercise

Why is it you cannot remember such information?

Did your receptors perceive these stimuli?

Did your brain receive the information and interpret it?

So what happened?



An Exercise

Your brain decided to ignore it!



An Exercise

Compare this with:

voxverax.blogspot.com



An Exercise

What would he choose

to have in his cell or as an activity?





Treadmill

Chess Set

Pool table

Game of basketball

Books

TV

Weights Machine

Photograph or Artwork

Educational material




Treadmill

Chess Set

Pool table

Game of basketball

Books

TV

Weights Machine

Photograph or Artwork

Overt Behavioural Stimulation

Cognitive stimulation

Educational material





A great proportion of stimulation of the brain does not manifest itself in overt behavioural changes

Isn’t Animal Enrichment about Enriching the Mind?



Enriching the Mind

Stimuli that is received by the animal

Behavioural change detected

No behavioural change detected

Data stored for later use Data ignored


Ignorance is bliss!

If an animal ignores a stimulus:

It is a choice that animal has made.

And choice is a good thing.


The Challenge of Challenging

Challenge

Stimuli

Variety Change



Variety

Tastes

Smells

Sounds

Light levels

Sights

Textures

Temperatures

Hunger states

Social behaviour

Physical expectations

Mentalexpectations



• Scale (magnitude of change)

• Range (how many)

• Time (when and how often)

• Complexity (simple or multifaceted)

Changes



Challenge Variety Changex

Seek information

Choice

CONTROL

No overtbehaviours

Overtbehaviours

Internal External


S.P.I.D.E.R.



What you see!

What you see!


What you see!


What you see!



My Challenge to You

Enrich your animals’ minds

www.digitalcodesmith.com


Thank you

• Unitec Institute of Technology

www.paulspond.com