Testing Environmental Enrichment

Question 1

True or false
Environmental enrichment is a concept that tries to help animals to redress the difference between the environment that they evolved to be in compared with the 1 they find themselves in captivity
There are lots of differences between captivity and the wild environment which can pose challenges to animal functioning on welfare and environmental enrichment can help

Answer 1

True

Question 2

What is Swaisgood & Shepherdson 2005’s definition of environmental enrichment?

Answer 2

Environmental enrichment = Catchall term for husbandry activities with the specific aim of improving welfare

Question 3

What context does Swaisgood & Shepherdson 2005’s environmental enrichment definition fit in?

Answer 3

Zoo contexts

Question 4

What is Patterson-Kane 2003’s definition of environmental enrichment?

Answer 4

Environmental enrichment = An increase in complexity or naturalness of the environment with the goal of improving welfare

Question 5

What context does Patterson-Kane 2003’s environmental enrichment definition Fit in?

Answer 5

Lab animals

Question 6

What is Newbury 1995’s environmental enrichment definition?

Answer 6

Environmental enrichment = An improvement in the biological functioning of captive animals resulting from modification to their environment

Question 7

What is Will et al 2004’s environmental enrichment definition?

Answer 7

Environmental enrichment = Environmental conditions which, in comparison to standard housing conditions, provide enhanced possibilities of physical and social stimulation and/or interaction

Question 8

What are the 2 main types of environmental enrichment?

Answer 8

1) Naturalistic enrichment

2) Occupational enrichment

Question 9

What are naturalistic enrichments?

Answer 9

Naturalistic enrichments mimic stimuli that would be found naturally in the environment of a wild conspecific or ancestral species

Question 10

What is occupational enrichment?

Answer 10

Occupational enrichment engages the animal, encouraging beneficial behaviour, without matching the natural environment
It’s more about the kind of behaviour or stimulation that the animal is experiencing as a result of an artificial enrichment
They should encourage beneficial behaviour even if that behaviour is not actually necessarily natural

Question 11

True or false

You can’t have an enrichment that is a combination of naturalistic and occupational enrichment

Answer 11

False

You can get enrichment that is a combination of naturalistic and occupational enrichment

Question 12

What are the 5 needs and how can environmental enrichment help in acquiring them?

Answer 12

1) Suitable environment
Bedding, trees and burrows are an example

2) Suitable diet
The diet can be made more suitable by enriching it, both in terms of the presentation and the actual food included

3) Normal behaviour
Environmental enrichment can encourage normal behaviour such as foraging or climbing

4) With or apart from other animals
Companionship is an example of an enrichment
The animal may need safe areas to get away from bullying animals

5) Protection from pain, injury and disease
This can be achieved through the use of refuges and shelters

Question 13

Because environmental enrichment can aid in many different things it is included in some legislation and codes of practice
Give 2 examples of this

Answer 13

Home office requirements for lab rats

EU ban on battery cages in 2012 in favour of enriched cages

Question 14

Environmental enrichment helps normalise animal cognition (learning and memory)
How does it do this?

Answer 14

Environmental enrichment affects the brain
Due to this it can improve learning and memory abilities

Environmental enrichment also reverses effects of deterioration in learning caused by:

        - ageing
        - certain brain damage
        - neurodegenerative disorders

Question 15

What 3 things results from a barren environment?

Answer 15

Physically smaller, lighter brains
Reduced brain cell density
Reduced functional plasticity

Question 16

True or false

Environmental enrichment reduced Abnormal Repetitive Behaviours

Answer 16

True

Question 17

What do you need to be aware of when using a environmental enrichment for an Abnormal Repetitive Behaviour?

Answer 17

The success of the enrichment in reducing the Abnormal Repetitive Behaviour depends on what is causing it
If the ARB is a scar from past problems enrichment may not have much effect
However it may still improve the animals welfare even though it doesn’t actually reduce the ARB

Question 18

True or false
Sometimes things that stop Abnormal Repetitive Behaviours fall under environmental enrichment in terms of being a husbandry or an environmental modified modification that improves biological functioning
However they don’t count if they only improve 1 measure of biological functioning or welfare
Due to this you need to measure multiple welfare indicators

Answer 18

True

Question 19

True or false

Environmental enrichment can help reduce stress

Answer 19

True

Question 20

True or false

Environmental enrichment can reduce baseline stress by providing safety and comfort

Answer 20

True

Question 21

How does environmental enrichment reduce stress?

Answer 21

Environmental enrichment can improve the controllability of an animal’s environment
Increasing control often reduces stress

Question 22

True or false
Environmental enrichment can improve stress physiology
Give examples of this

Answer 22

Reduction in plasma cortisol/corticosterone

Long term changes in adrenal gland size

Question 23

What 4 ways can environmental enrichment improve welfare/functioning through?

Answer 23

1) Reduced specific frustrations
2) Reducing general boredom
3) Reducing loneliness/social stress
4) Increasing health and fitness

Question 24

True or false

Environmental enrichment will never injure or poison the animal

Answer 24

False
Bad effects of enrichment might include injury or poisoning, especially as animals may destroy and/or consume the enrichment item

Question 25

What 6 things might a bad enrichment do?

Answer 25

1) Do nothing
2) Increase aggression
3) Cause fear or stress
4) Simply redirect behaviour
5) Be impractical
6) Animal care staff worry about environmental enrichment blocking their view of the animals, making health monitoring difficult

Question 26

What 5 things do you need to be aware of when designing and evaluating effective environmental enrichment?

Answer 26

1) Know your aim and which environmental enrichment definition fits it best
2) The animals natural behaviour
3) Know your animals natural habitat and senses
4) You need to discover how and when your animal needs the environmental enrichment
5) Some environmental enrichment is only effective when it’s novel
However novelty is not important if the environmental enrichment helps the animal satisfy a specific motivation and so must always be present

Question 27

Why do some people provide predator odours as an environmental enrichment?

Answer 27

Some people believe that providing predator odours is a good enrichment because it encourages defensive behaviour
This would be good for reintroduction programs

Question 28

What are the 3 main approaches to testing environmental enrichment?

Answer 28

1) Targeted welfare assessment of specific indicators
2) Preference test, consumer demand test and cognitive bias tests
3) Time budget studies

Question 29

What happens in a time budget test?

Answer 29

You look at how enrichment affects the proportion of time doing different behaviours
Good environmental enrichment should increase diversity of desirable behaviour

Question 30

What can time budget studies show?

Answer 30

They can reveal detail of how environmental enrichment changes behaviour
They can show whether and how environmental enrichment is used
However they need to be careful with interpretation of data

Question 31

Why must a time budget studies ethogram be hypothesis driven?

Answer 31

If you just measure activity you’re just measuring arousal not valence
You need a hypothesis about the levels of activity to determine if the changes are good or bad (valence)

Question 32

True or false
In time budget studies the existence of an environmental enrichment creates new behavioural possibilities compared with when the enrichment is not present
When present the environmental enrichment reduced the time and/or space available for other behaviours that you’d see without the enrichment

Answer 32

True

Question 33

True or false
In time budget studies looking at Abnormal Repetitive Behaviour the Abnormal Repetitive Behaviour is measured as a proportion of time excluding time interacting with the environmental enrichment

Answer 33

True