Animal Care Flashcards
What animal behavior?
What an animal naturally does, whether in a zoo or in the wild. Scientists often look at behaviors in the wild first, to learn about how animals should be behaving in the zoo.
What are the four types of encrichment?
Habitat enrichment, sensory enrichment, behavioral conditioning, and social grouping.
What are the two types of environmental enrichment devices?
Puzzle Feeders and Boomer Ball
Describe habitat enrichment.
Habitat design is an important consideration for providing enrichment. Habitats should provide a variety of substrates, levels, and complexities.
Describe sensory enrichment.
Enrichment that engages the senses: smell, taste, touch, sight, and hearing.
What does camel hair have to do with sensory enrichment?
Hoof stock animals are a common prey source for big cats. Our big cats are sometimes given hair, fur, or even feces from hoof stock animals as enrichment. In the wild, big cats can use their sense of smell to find prey. By introducing the scent of a possible prey animal, it stimulates the big cat’s hunting instincts and can encourage them to roam around their exhibit searching for prey. We have also seen them rolling around in the animal hair to get the scent all over themselves, which would help them mask their natural smell and more easily sneak up on prey.
What does perfumes, herbs, and spices have to do with sensory enrichment?
Scent enrichment is used to stimulate responses to the sensitive sense of smell most animals have. Many animals typically rub their faces or bodies in the scent, or even possibly roll in it, demonstrating a response that would be similar for how they would interact with new scents in the wild. Scents are commonly given to the big cats, wolves, and bears. For example, our lions really enjoy the smell (and taste!) of elephant dung, our arctic wolf enjoys dried shrimp, and our female panda loves the perfume Polo by Ralph Lauren. For predators, smelly scents help them cover up their natural odor so they can sneak up on prey. For other animals, scents are just a fun and different thing to investigate and interact with.
Describe behavioral conditioning.
The San Diego Zoo uses something called operant conditioning, with an emphasis on positive reinforcement. Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which an animal’s behavior is modified, in part, by consequences.
Describe social grouping.
Looking at the social structure of animals in the wild and mimicking it in the Zoo is also an important aspect of animal enrichment and behavior. For animals like bonobos and gazelle, having many other companions is an important part of social structure and mental wellbeing.
Describe animal diets?
An animal’s diet refers to the food that it eats. The San Diego Zoo and Safari Park have three nutritionists that are in charge of making sure our animals’ health needs are met with a diet they are willing to eat. Just like humans, animals have favorite foods, and some of those foods are better for them than others. Nutritionists have to find a balance of foods that are tasty to animals and also healthy for them.
Describe the animal diets for carnivore.
Large carnivores like the jaguar and birds of prey receive a vitamin enriched ground meat product, as well as whole (dead) rabbits and large beef bones. Our carnivores enjoy their bones, such as cow femurs, which strengthen their jaw muscles and keep their teeth clean. Our polar bears even like to play with theirs in the water!
What is animal enrichment?
It is an activity or object that provides animals with an opportunity to do something with their time, like mental stimulation and physical exercise.
