Environmental Enrichment on a Budget!

Environmental Enrichment on a Budget with Student Zookeepers!

(Hi guys, I thought you would all enjoy this post, my first in a while! I wrote this whilst at University and working at Reaseheath - it was meant to be published in Ratel, but for some reason, it didn't!)

It is widely known and practised that environmental enrichment is beneficial to many captive animals. Poole stated back in 1997 that “happy animals make good science”, which has proved to be highly relevant with the numerous behavioural/biological studies conducted on captive animals, whether they be in a lab or a zoological environment. These studies have provided an insight into the lives of wild animals, with results able to be projected onto the in-situ conservation of wild animals. We, as zoological collections, are always striving to improve animal welfare and environmental enrichment is an excellent way to do this – and it can be very cheap and simple! I conducted my dissertation on the effect of environmental enrichment on the behaviour (and therefore welfare) of laboratory housed Xenopus laevis (African clawed frog). I found that the provision of simple enrichment, in the form of black plastic tubes, significantly reduced incidents of frogs swimming repeatedly into the walls of the tanks. This is an excellent example of a cheap, yet effective enrichment for improving the welfare of captive amphibians.

At the Reaseheath Zoo, many of us are student keepers, and it is important that we can use simple, inexpensive, yet effective ways of enriching the animals’ lives. Compiling ideas allows us to develop our knowledge, which we can apply in our future careers - every day is a beneficial learning curve. Here, I discuss some of the things we have tried at our collection with the hope of sharing ideas with the readers of RATEL.

Scent Enrichment

I have tested scent enrichment with the serval (Leptailurus serval) in a variety of scents and techniques. What seems to be the most effective is a ‘serval sized box’ filled with hay and sprigs of mint and rosemary. Though incredibly simple, the serval was seen throughout the day sitting in the box, scent marking and digging. The next morning, the box was completely destroyed, showing how he really got the use out of it! 

Serval with scent enrichment

Following this success, the enrichment has been provided again, using different scents each time. Rubbing mint leaves around the enclosure, creating a trail, also proved to be enriching and the serval spent time scent marking over the mint. This enrichment was then tried on the bat eared foxes (Otocycon megalotis), however, they didn’t seem to be bothered by it, sniffing the box and walking off. The next day, there was no evidence of the enrichment being touched overnight. We are still working hard to provide effective enrichment for the foxes during the summer months when they are mostly nocturnal. 

The Asian short clawed otters (Aonyx cinerea) were another species where this enrichment was tested. This proved effective, with otters being seen lying in the box and rubbing themselves all over it! The next day, the box was non-existent and the hay had been taken into the nest boxes! Recently, I was able to use blood to create a scent trail for both the otter and the serval. Collecting the blood (from the bottom of a box where some meat was defrosting) into a syringe meant blood trails could be made as enrichment.

Otter with blood trail

When using this for the serval, I deliberately made the blood trail away from where the main food was, in order for the serval to investigate his surroundings. The serval was seen to follow this blood trail into a bush to find a chick, before finding the main food and settling down to eat it. This was also the reaction from the male otter. It was great to see him being so active and exploring his enclosure, so this enrichment is sure to be repeated in the future.

Food Enrichment

Wonga with wicker ball

I tried a new enrichment with the male otter (Wonga), including his favourite food. I found a natural looking, wicker ball in Wilkos (other shops are available!), stuffed it with hay and pieces of day old chick, which provided Wonga with a lot of fun, causing him to have to work for his food! Seeing him throw the ball around in an attempt to get the food out was amazing to see, and like the box, the hay was removed for bedding! We are hoping to try this out with the meerkats (Suricata suricatta), however, 13 meerkats will require many wicker balls that will probably be destroyed within seconds! As a small collection and working college, we are lucky in that not all enrichment has to be natural, but it is preferred. This has allowed us to use bottle enrichment with the ring tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) multiple times following the success of the first usage. Cutting holes in the bottles and tying them to beams and

Lemur with bottle feeder

branches with bailing twine allowed for the bottles to be manipulated in an attempt to get the food. The lemurs were seen spending around an hour using the enrichment. It seemed to be that the lemur with the bottle would be trying to get out the food, and the lemur sitting on the floor underneath would get all of the food that dropped out! Our ring tailed lemurs are quite inquisitive, which is why this enrichment worked so well with them.

 We tried this enrichment with the spider monkeys (Ateles spp), however, they aren’t too fond of new things and by the next day, the bottles had not been touched, and so were removed from the enclosure. It can be hard to enrich the spider monkeys as they are so wary of novel items added to the environment. We have two types of callitrichidae, the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) and the critically endangered cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus). The bottle enrichment could not be used here, so one of the keepers came up with a novel way of feeding mealworms. A cardboard tube was cut into small pieces, slotted together to form a ball, then stuffed with hay and mealworms. The more hay stuffed in the ball, the harder it was for the tamarins and marmosets to extract the mealworms! 

Cotton top tamarin with ball enrichment

These balls were able to be cable tied to existing branches and could easily be removed. They were proved to be successful, with the cotton top tamarins foraging for the mealworms and taking the balls apart to reach the food. This enrichment has since been reproduced, with the same positive results.

As a small collection, we are working hard to compile an enrichment file, bringing together ideas from all keepers, to share information and make the enrichment file available for everyone to refer to when stuck for enrichment ideas.

I would like to thank my colleagues for assisting with creating enrichment, Jessica Chapfield for the photos of the cotton top tamarin and Amy Dunbar for the support in producing this article.