Kid Territory: What is Enrichment?
Tembo, an African elephant, investigated this snow that her keepers blew into her enclosure.
Enrichment is an important part of animal care. It is made up of the many ways in which keepers provide zoo animals with opportunities to express species-typical behaviors. Enrichment provides zoo animals with occupation—something to do with their time—as well as mental stimulation and physical exercise. It also gives animals choices and some control over their environment.
Enrichment can come from food
New and different foods to smell, taste, and discover; whole foods that must be peeled, cracked, or bitten into; foods frozen inside ice blocks; foods hidden throughout an enclosure or stuffed inside a sealed box or bag; chopped pieces of food or small items like nuts and raisins scattered in hay; or foods like honey and peanut butter smeared into rock crevices or holes in a log. All these types of foods and ways of presenting them give animals the opportunity to hunt or forage for their food and work at eating it, activities that most animals in the wild spend a great deal of time doing.
Enrichment can come from a new or unusual item or experience
A large rubber ball gives takins something to kick and butt with their heads. A bear seeing himself in a mirror thinks he has a new rival and practices his "I'm bigger than you are" threat display. A chain with different-sized metal pipes hanging from it makes "music" when elephants manipulate the pipes and swing them together. Spray from a hose gives a jaguar an unexpected rain shower. Cinnamon-scented sticks draw a crowd of curious Galápagos tortoises. A trail of musky scent through the grass gives tigers something to track.
Enrichment can come from the design of an enclosure
...and what is placed inside it. A grassy hillside, a tangle of tree roots, trees, and bushes, and both sunny and shady spots give gorillas a variety of choices of where to sit, play, sleep, or hide out. An enclosure with a sandy area, leafy branches in the corner, and a darkened cave gives a snake the choice of exploring, curling up hidden, or winding its way up to a higher position. A pool to splash in, a tree to climb, a cave to sleep in, and large grassy areas to roam give giant pandas many different opportunities. A 15,000-gallon (68,190-liter) pool gives hippos the chance to spend most of their day in the water, as they would in the wild, swimming, submerging and walking on the bottom, mock fighting with one another, or napping with only ears, eyes, and nostrils above the waterline.
And enrichment can come from interactions
...with the same species, other species, or even humans. Housing social species like primates, elephants, flamingos, or antelope together allows them to create a social structure and learn and practice all the behaviors necessary to be successful within it. Housing different species together that might be found in the same habitat, as in the field exhibits at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, provides opportunities for the animals to mark, protect, and defend territories; be alert for danger or interference from other animals; protect their young; and many other natural behaviors. Interactions with human keepers and trainers gives animals opportunities to learn new things, achieve goals and experience successes, test limits on occasion, and in some cases receive praise or affection.
Enrichment is all about providing a rich, complex, interesting, and challenging life for zoo animals, one in which they can show us just how fascinating and magnificent they are.
More
Animal Profiles: Tembo
the African Elephant
Animal Bytes:
Antelope, Boa,
Elephant, Flamingo,
Galápagos
Tortoise, Giant Panda,
Gorilla, Hippopotamus,
Jaguar, Polar
Bear, Python, Rattlesnake, Snake, Takin,
Tiger
Wild Animal Park:
Field Exhibits
