Behavioral enrichment
A variety of enrichment techniques are used to create desired outcomes similar to an animal's individual and species' history.
Provided enrichment may be seen in the form of auditory, olfactory, habitat factors, food, research projects, training, and objects.
[2] Environmental enrichment can improve the overall welfare of animals in captivity and create a habitat similar to what they would experience in their wild environment.
[15][16][17] Most types of music that are selected for enrichment are based on human preferences, causing anthropomorphic biases that may not translate to other animals.
[19] Feeding enrichment techniques causes the animal to indulge in natural, active behaviors that allow for more stimulation and prevents boredom.
[13] Most food-based enrichment occurs in the context of searching for food, such as cracking open a nut or digging holes in tree trunks for worms.
[citation needed] Structural Enrichment is when objects are added to an enclosure to mimic an animal's natural habitat.
[24] In the wild, animals deal with ecological challenges in order to acquire the resources, such as food and shelter, that they require to survive.
[25] 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.
[25] Therefore, these challenges act as an important problem-solving element in the animals' day-to-day lives, and in-turn, increases their overall fitness.
[26] Social enrichment can either involve housing a group of conspecifics or animals of different species that would naturally encounter each other in the wild.
[33] 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.
[35] 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),[36][37] cognitive bias studies,[38] and the effects of frustration.
[39][40] Physiological indicators include heart rate,[41] corticosteroids,[42] immune function,[43] neurobiology,[44] eggshell quality[45] and thermography.
Animals can become habituated to environmental enrichments, showing positive behaviors at onset of exposure and progressively declining with time.
Environmental enrichments are effective primarily because it offers novelty stimuli, making the animal's daily routines less predictable, as would be in the wild.
In a survey,[48] "time taken by animal care staff to complete other tasks" was the most significant factor influencing environmental enrichment provisions and scheduling.
