Chapter 4 - Environmental Enrichment Flashcards
What does environmental enrichment involve? When should it be considered?
Enhancement of an animal’s physical or social environment. Should be considered where opportunities for social interactions are not available or where the animal’s physical environment is restricted or lacking.
What does environmental enrichment help reduce? List some examples.
Reduce incidence or severity of undesirable or abnormal behaviors. Locomotor stereotypies such as weaving, pacing, and route-tracing and mouth-based behaviors such as wool-eating by sheep, feather picking and cannibalism by poultry, bar biting by pigs, tongue rolling by cattle, and wind-sucking by horses
What are the four goals of an enrichment program?
- Increase number and range of normal behaviors shown by the animal
- Prevent the development of abnormal behaviors or reduce their frequency or severity
- Increase positive utilization of the environment
- Increase the animal’s ability to cope with behavioral and physiological challenges such as exposure to humans, experimental manipulation, or environmental variation
What should enrichment strategies be based on? Enrichment should not only be attractive to the animal, but result in what?
Based on understanding of species specific behaviors and physiology. Should result in interest that is sufficiently sustained to achieve the desired performance outcomes.
What are the five types of enrichment? Describe them.
Social - Direct or indirect contact with conspecifics or humans
Occupational - Psychological enrichment and enrichment that encourages exercise
Physical - Altering the size or complexity of the animal’s enclosure or adding accessories to the enclosure such as objects, substrate, or permanent structures
Sensory - Visual, auditory, other other stimuli modalities
Nutritional - Presenting varied or novel food types or changing the method of food delivery
All ag species are social except?
Adult boar
Describe cattle enrichment.
Social - Visual and auditory contact with conspecifics, humans can serve as substitute
Occupational - Tied dairy cattle should have daily exercise in yard. Mechanical brushes to groom hard to reach areas
Nutritional - Access to pastures recommended for all cattle
Sensory - Quiet environment for dairy cattle, olfactory enrichment for feedlot cattle
Describe horse enrichment.
Social - Highly motivated to interact with other horses. Confining may lead to depression and stereotypies.
Occupational - Toys in stall
Nutritional - Spend 10-12 hours/day grazing. Food toys. Should get foraging opportunities or they will direct it to the stall bedding or show oral stereotypies
Sensory - Minimal evidence of pheromone product
Describe poultry enrichment.
Social - Socialized chickens had reduced responses to stressors
Occupational - Perches or other elevated areas. Egg laying chickens use perches at night. Older turkeys and broiler chickens need lower perches
Physical - Nest boxes for laying hens, as they may show agitated pacing behaviors when seeking a nest. Nesting substrate with friable litter material for turkey and fowl, water and friable material for ducks.
Sensory - Regular exposure of chicks to video stimulation reduced fear of a novel place
Nutritional - Scatter feeding or water feeding increases foraging opportunities. Can reduce occurrence of feather picking and cannibalism.
Describe sheep and goat enrichment.
Social - Sheep highly social, if need to limit contact, provide sheep with visual contact with other sheep.
Occupational and physical - Wool biting may develop in confined sheep. Goats are climbers.
Describe swine enrichment.
Social - House unstable groups with ample space and environmental complexity. Social contact with familiar caretakers
Occupational - Slatted floors/liquid manure systems prevent foraging materials. Provision of foraging materials at least 24h before farrowing due to strong sow nesting behavior.
Physical - Subdivided or multi-level pens to prevent overcrowding and competition in one area
Sensory - Can associate cues with food. Interact with materials that provide tactile stimulation of different areas of their snout and mouth. Communicate with odors, so avoid disruptive cleaning routines during farrowing. Continuous loud noise should be avoided to facilitate vocal communication among pigs.
Nutritional - Feed restrict during pregnancy to prevent excessive weight gain. Sow aggression may be increased when housed without outlet for diverse foraging behaviors. Foraging behavior may be channel into stereotypies or abnormal water consumption
What are two general considerations of enrichment?
Safety of enrichment devices and assess behaviors frequently for normal and abnormal behaviors.
