Behavioral enrichment

Behavioral 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 well being. Enrichment can either be active or passive, depending on whether it requires direct contact between the animal and the enrichment. A variety of enrichment techniques are used to create desired outcomes similar to an animal's individual and species' history. Each of the techniques used is intended to stimulate the animal's senses similarly to how they would be activated in the wild. Provided enrichment may be seen in the form of auditory, olfactory, habitat factors, food, research projects, training, and objects.

Passive enrichment provides sensory stimulation but no direct contact or control. This type of enrichment is commonly used for its potential to benefit several animals simultaneously as well as requiring limited direct animal contact.

Visual enrichment is typically provided by changing the layout of an animal's holding area. The type of visual enrichment can vary, from something as simple as adding pictures on walls to videotapes and television. Visual enrichment such as television can especially benefit animals housed in single cages. Mirrors are also a potential form of enrichment, specifically for animals that display an understanding of self recognition, such as non human primates. In addition to using mirrors to reflect the animal's own image, mirrors can also be angled so the animal is able to see normally out of sight areas of the holding area. to non human primates. Studies have also looked at various other genres, such as pop and rock, but their ability to provide effective enrichment remains inconclusive. Most types of music that are selected for enrichment are based on human preferences, causing anthropomorphic biases that may not translate to other animals. Species specific sounds require further research to find what pitch, frequency, and range is most suitable for the animal.

Active enrichment often requires the animal to perform some sort of physical activity as well as direct interaction with the enrichment object. Active enrichment items can temporarily reduce stereotypic behaviors as their beneficial effects are usually limited to the short periods of active use. Feeding enrichment techniques causes the animal to indulge in natural, active behaviors that allow for more stimulation and prevents boredom. The environment of captive animals should be switched frequently since their environment in the wild would bring on new objects and exploration. Research into what constitutes the most beneficial and appropriate forms of enrichment must be used when considering the provision of enrichment options, especially for species where natural like settings may be difficult to achieve. The animal should never become too familiar with their environment because that can cause boredom, no stimulation or stereotypical behavior.

Olfactory enrichment can stimulate naturalistic behavior, enhance exploration, and reduce inactive behaviors. Olfactory enrichment can be utilized by itself, paired with novel toys, or paired with food based enrichment. This type of enrichment is most commonly used with species that commonly utilize their olfactory senses in the wild. Although highly beneficial, it is important for researchers to analyze the long term effects of certain odors on captive animals. Odors can be scattered on a novel toy such as a ball or semi randomly throughout an enclosure. Various forms of odors can include catnip, odor of conspecific, perfume, feces of a prey species, or spices.

Cognitive enrichment is defined as, improving animal welfare by providing opportunities for captive animals to use cognitive skills for problem solving and providing limited control over some aspects of its environment. In the wild, animals deal with ecological challenges in order to acquire the resources, such as food and shelter, that they require to survive. These challenges arise from interactions with other animals, or through changes to their environment that require the individuals to exercise their cognitive ability and to improve their behavioral strategies. which can directly affect its emotional processes. Cognitive enrichment should be provided in addition to a diverse environment that is already structurally and socially enriched; it goes beyond the basic needs of the animals. Social enrichment can encourage social behaviors that are seen in the wild, including feeding, foraging, defense, territoriality, reproduction, and courtship.

The most common form of human interaction enrichment is training. The human and animal interaction during training builds trust, and increases the animal's cooperation during clinical and research procedures. In addition, training sessions have been shown to benefit the welfare of both individually housed animals and communally housed animals by providing cognitive stimulation, increasing social play, decreasing inactivity, and mitigating social aggression during feeding.

A range of methods can be used to assess which environmental enrichment should be provided. These are based on the premises that captive animals should perform behaviors in a similar way to those in the ethogram of their ancestral species, animals should be allowed to perform the activities or interactions they prefer, i. e. preference test studies, and animals should be allowed to perform those activities for which they are highly motivated, i. e. motivation studies. Environmental enrichment is a way to ensure that an animals natural and instinctual behaviors are kept and able to be passed and taught from one generation to the next. Enrichment techniques that encourage species specific behaviors, like those that are discovered in the wild, have been studied and found to help the process of reintroduction of endangered species into their natural habitats, as well as helping to create offspring with natural traits and behaviors. The main way the success of environmental enrichment can be measured is by recognizing the behavioral changes that occur from the techniques used to shape desired behaviors of the animal compared to the behaviors of those found in the wild. Other ways that the success of environmental enrichment can be assessed quantitatively by a range of behavioral and physiological indicators of animal welfare. In addition to those listed above, behavioral indicators include the occurrence of abnormal behaviours (e. g. stereotypies), cognitive bias studies, and the effects of frustration. Physiological indicators include heart rate, corticosteroids, immune function, neurobiology, eggshell quality and thermography. It is very difficult for zookeepers to measure the effectiveness of enrichment in terms of the stress due to the fact that animals that are found in zoos are oftentimes on display and presented with very abnormal conditions that can cause uneasiness and stress. Measuring enrichment in terms of reproduction is easier because of our ability to record offspring numbers and fertility. By making necessary environment changes and providing mental stimulation, animals in captivity have been seen to reproduce at a more similar rate to their wild ancestors in comparison to those provided with less behavioral and environmental enrichment.

The process of producing and providing environmental enrichment usually require a large allocation of time and resources. In a survey, "time taken by animal care staff to complete other tasks" was the most significant factor influencing environmental enrichment provisions and scheduling. Therefore, it is important to develop appropriate environmental enrichment programs that can be effectively carried out with the size of staff and time available.