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”.
3© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
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
4© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
Human environments may be extremely bland unstimulating and unrecognisable for animals
Enrichment 101
5© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
Enrichment 101
Animals require access to environments that stimulate them to function behaviourally, physiologically and cognitively similarly to their native counterparts
6© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
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
10© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
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
11© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
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
14© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
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.
15© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
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.
16© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
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19© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
• 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?’
20© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
‘What’s in a word?’
Possible confusion
Environmental Enrichment
versus
Behavioural Enrichment
21© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
‘What’s in a word?’
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)
22© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
‘What’s in a word?’
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)
23© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
‘What’s in a word?’
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)
24© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
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
25© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
Is it all the same? Isn’t all behavioural enrichment environmental enrichment?
Are they distinct?
What’s in a word?
EnvironmentalBehavioural
Environmental Behavioural
26© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
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
27© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What’s in a word?
Can we not eschew obfuscation and espouse elucidation?
Can we avoid ambiguity and adopt clarity?
28© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What’s in a word?
Can we just use the words:
Animal Enrichment?
29© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
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?
30© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What are we enriching?
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
Data
INTERPRETRelevant Responses
31© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What are we enriching?
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
32© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What are we enriching?
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?
33© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What are we enriching?
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?
34© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What are we enriching?
An Exercise
Your brain decided to ignore it!
35© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What are we enriching?
An Exercise
Compare this with:
voxverax.blogspot.com
36© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What are we enriching?
An Exercise
What would he choose
to have in his cell or as an activity?
voxverax.blogspot.com
37© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What are we enriching?
voxverax.blogspot.com
Treadmill
Chess Set
Pool table
Game of basketball
Books
TV
Weights Machine
Photograph or Artwork
Educational material
38© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What are we enriching?
voxverax.blogspot.com
Treadmill
Chess Set
Pool table
Game of basketball
Books
TV
Weights Machine
Photograph or Artwork
Overt Behavioural Stimulation
Cognitive stimulation
Educational material
39© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What are we enriching?
40© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What are we enriching?
A great proportion of stimulation of the brain does not manifest itself in overt behavioural changes
Isn’t Animal Enrichment about Enriching the Mind?
41© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What are we enriching?
Enriching the Mind
Stimuli that is received by the animal
Behavioural change detected
No behavioural change detected
Data stored for later use Data ignored
42© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
Ignorance is bliss!
If an animal ignores a stimulus:
It is a choice that animal has made.
And choice is a good thing.
43© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
The Challenge of Challenging
Challenge
Stimuli
Variety Change
44© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
The Challenge of Challenging
Variety
Tastes
Smells
Sounds
Light levels
Sights
Textures
Temperatures
Hunger states
Social behaviour
Physical expectations
Mentalexpectations
45© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
The Challenge of Challenging
• Scale (magnitude of change)
• Range (how many)
• Time (when and how often)
• Complexity (simple or multifaceted)
Changes
46© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
The Challenge of Challenging
Challenge Variety Changex
Seek information
Choice
CONTROL
No overtbehaviours
Overtbehaviours
Internal External
47© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
S.P.I.D.E.R.
The Challenge of Challenging
48© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What you see!
What you see!
49© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What you see!
50© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
What you see!
51© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
52© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
My Challenge to You
Enrich your animals’ minds
www.digitalcodesmith.com
53© Unitec New Zealand - L Roberts, REEC, Auckland, 2008
Thank you
• Unitec Institute of Technology
www.paulspond.com
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