Environmental Enrichment for Captive Animals E-Book

Robert J. Young

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: UFAW Animal Welfare
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 474

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Environmental enrichment is a simple and effective means of improving animal welfare in any species – companion, farm, laboratory and zoo. For many years, it has been a popular area of research, and has attracted the attention and concerns of animal keepers and carers, animal industry professionals, academics, students and pet owners all over the world.

This book is the first to integrate scientific knowledge and principles to show how environmental enrichment can be used on different types of animal. Filling a major gap, it considers the history of animal keeping, legal issues and ethics, right through to a detailed exploration of whether environmental enrichment actually works, the methods involved, and how to design and manage programmes.

• The first book in a major new animal welfare series
• Draws together a large amount of research on different animals
• Provides detailed examples and case studies
• An invaluable reference tool for all those who work with or study animals in captivity

This book is part of the UFAW/Wiley-Blackwell Animal Welfare Book Series.  This major series of books produced in collaboration between UFAW (The Universities Federation for Animal Welfare), and Wiley-Blackwell provides an authoritative source of information on worldwide developments, current thinking and best practice in the field of animal welfare science and technology. For details of all of the titles in the series see www.wiley.com/go/ufaw

Leseprobe

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

1 Environmental Enrichment: an Historical Perspective

1.1 Definitions

1.2 A Short History of Animal Keeping

1.3 Two Approaches to Environmental Enrichment

1.4 Animal Welfare and Environmental Enrichment

1.5 Developmental Psychology

1.6 The Animal Rights Movement

1.7 The Animal Welfare Movement

1.8 The Five Freedoms: a Central Concept in Animal Welfare

1.9 Animal Welfare Indicators

1.10 Conclusion

2 Why Bother with Environmental Enrichment?

2.1 Why Use Enrichment?

2.2 Justifying Enrichment

2.3 The Ethical Imperative for Environmental Enrichment

2.4 Zoos: a Special Case for Enrichment

2.5 Care-givers and Enrichment

2.6 Conclusion

3 Does Environmental Enrichment Work?

3.1 The Evidence

3.2 How does Enrichment Improve Animal Welfare?

4 Proactive v. Reactive use of Environmental Enrichment

4.1 What Animals Want

4.2 Prioritising Environmental Enrichment

4.3 Solving Animal-welfare Problems using Environmental Enrichment

4.4 Summary: Treating Welfare Problems

5 Designing an Enrichment Device

5.1 Identifying What You Want to Do

5.2 Importance of Species-specific Behaviour

5.3 Rewards and Schedules of Reward

5.4 Cosmetic Design Considerations

5.5 Safety Considerations

5.6 Discussion and Summary of the Product Design Process

6 The Enrichment Programme

6.1 Setting Goals

6.2 The Enrichment Diary

6.3 The Enrichment Manual

6.4 Changing Animal Care-giver Attitudes

6.5 Conclusion

7 Enrichment for Different Categories of Animals

7.1 Companion Animals

7.2 Farm Animals

7.3 Laboratory Animals

7.4 Zoo Animals

7.5 Conclusion

8 Food and Foraging Enrichment

8.1 What is Food?

8.2 How Animals Forage and Feed

8.3 Feeding in General

8.4 The Sensory Qualities of Food

8.5 Conclusion

9 Social Environmental Enrichment

9.1 Social Housing of Asocial Species

9.2 Group Housing of Social Species

9.3 Behavioural Development and Socialisation

9.4 Rehabilitation and Group Formation

9.5 Managing Social Behaviour

9.6 Solitary Housing of Social Species

9.7 The Value of Human–Animal Contact

9.8 The Value of Contraspecific Contact

9.9 Limited Physical Contact

9.10 Visual, Auditory and Olfactory Contact

9.11 Conclusion

10 Housing

10.1 Looking at Species and Housing Levels

10.2 A Substrate Approach to Housing

10.3 A Bottom-up Approach to Animal Housing

10.4 Barriers: Keeping People Out and Animals In

10.5 The World Outside the Enclosure

10.6 Conclusion

11 Furniture, Toys and other Objects

11.1 Furniture

11.2 Furniture Design and Behaviour

11.3 Toys and Novel Objects

11.4 Alternatives to Static Homes

11.5 Conclusion

12 Designing and Analysing Enrichment Studies

12.1 Experimental Design

12.2 Statistical Analysis

12.3 Example Experimental Design and Associated Statistical Analyses

12.4 Has Animal Welfare been Improved?

13 Information Sources about Environmental Enrichment

13.1 Books

13.2 Pet Books

13.3 Journals

13.4 Magazines

13.5 Organisations

13.6 Videos and Television

13.7 Information Resources on the World Wide Web

13.8 Enrichment Manuals, Lists and CD-ROMs

13.9 Conferences

13.10 Training Courses

13.11 University Courses

13.12 Competitions

13.13 Suppliers

13.14 End-note

References

Glossary

Index

The Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

UFAW, founded in 1926, is an internationally recognised, independent, scientific and educational animal welfare charity concerned with promoting high standards of welfare for farm, companion, laboratory and captive wild animals, and for those animals with which we interact in the wild. It works to improve animals’ lives by:

Promoting and supporting developments in science and technology that underpin advances in animal welfare

Promoting education in animal care and welfare

Providing information, organising meetings, and publishing books, videos, articles, technical reports and the journal

Animal Welfare

Providing expert advice to government departments and other bodies and helping to draft and amend laws and guidelines

Enlisting the energies of animal keepers, scientists, veterinarians, lawyers and others who care about animals

‘Improvements in the care of animals are not now likely to come of their own accord, merely by wishing them: there must be research . . . and it is in sponsoring research of this kind, and making its results widely known, that UFAW performs one of its most valuable services.’

Sir Peter Medawar CBE FRS, 8th May 1957

Nobel Laureate (1960), Chaiman of the UFAW Scientific Advisory Committee (1951–1962)

For further information about UFAW and about how you can help to promote and support its work, please contact us at the address below.

Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

The Old School, Brewhouse Hill, Wheathampstead, Herts AL4 8AN, UK

Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] Website: www.ufaw.org.uk

© 2003 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW)

Series editors:

James K. Kirkwood, Robert C. Hubrecht

and Elizabeth A. Roberts

Blackwell Science Ltd, a Blackwell

Publishing Company

Editorial Offices:

9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ

Tel: [phone]

108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK

Tel: [phone]

Blackwell Science, Inc., 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148–5018, USA

Tel: [phone]

Iowa State Press, a Blackwell Publishing Company, 2121 State Avenue, Ames, Iowa 50014-8300, USA

Tel: [phone]

Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd, 550 Swanston Street, Carlton South, Victoria 3053, Australia

Tel: [phone]

Blackwell Wissenschafts Verlag, Kurfürstendamm 57, 10707 Berlin, Germany

Tel: [phone]

The right of the Author to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

First published 2003 by Blackwell Science Ltd

ISBN 0-632-06407-2

A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Young, Robert John, 1966–

Environmental enrichment for captive animals / Robert John Young.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

ISBN 0-632-06407-2 (pbk.)

1. Environmental enrichment (Animal culture) 2. Animal welfare. 3. Captive wild animals. 4. Domestic animals.

I. Title.

HV4737.Y68 2003

636.08'32–dc21

2002155056

Hong Kong

TJ International, Cornwall

For further information on

Blackwell Publishing, visit our website:

www.blackwellpublishing.com

Preface

This book is born out of my research and practical experience of environmental enrichment. I have tried to write a book that is scientifically rigorous but also practical. First and foremost, I believe that anyone involved in environmental enrichment needs a good basic understanding of animal welfare and the scientific evidence that environmental enrichment does indeed improve animal welfare. However, I did not wish to write a solely theoretical book as these already exist (Shepherdson et al., 1998) and I feel that such theorising is more appropriately published in peer-review journals. The other danger is to go too far the other way and write a practical implementation book, but these also already exist (Field, 1998). Instead, I have opted for the rather more perilous middle path – the hybrid. Really in order to meet the needs of my intended audience. This book is designed for the reader who wishes not only to implement environmental enrichment but also to understand how it actually improves animal welfare. The book is not aimed at the academic researcher in animal welfare, nor is it for those who only want a list of enrichment ideas for the species in their care. The book is not example driven but goal and strategy driven, because there are simply too many species on this planet to cover, more than 4000 mammal species alone.

The content of the book reflects the need for scientific knowledge and practical application of this knowledge. I have based the chapters on those subjects about which I am most frequently questioned either in academic or practical circles. For example, Chapter 12 on ‘Designing and Analysing Enrichment Studies’ results from the large number of people who have requested this information, principally zoo biologists and university students.

I have also tried to convey much of my own personal experience, both academic and in implementing environmental enrichment. On too many occasions I have visited institutions where people have tried to convey the right scientific and practical information about environmental enrichment but without either sufficient interpersonal skills or enough understanding of the situation to do so effectively. To be serious about the application of environmental enrichment or any animal welfare related subject, you must also be serious about human psychology. It is only by understanding the people who work with animals that environmental enrichment can be successfully implemented. One can have the best academic mind about the subject and the best practical skills for implementation, and yet these will count for nothing without the ability to understand, communicate with, learn from and educate those working with animals.

I regard this as a ‘how to’ book – by their nature such books are filled with instructions. This book has its fair share of these instructions, but also includes a significant amount on basic principles. Finally, I have tried to write in an accessible style and have in many places given full explanations of concepts rather than simply referring the reader to other literature. This being said, I have often summarised concepts for the sake of brevity, and therefore I highly recommend that, whenever possible the interested reader uses this book in conjunction with the primary sources of information.

This book should not be judged on its sales or academic reviews but by how it is used by the people who read it. My hope is that it may help the more academically minded person produce environmental enrichment that is not only scientifically valid but, importantly, practical. Conversely, I hope that this book will enable those who favour a more practical approach to increase the scientific validity of their environmental enrichment work. Ultimately, I hope this book will result in the much wider application of environmental enrichment that improves animal welfare.

Rob YoungBelo Horizonte, BrazilFebruary 2003

Field, D. A. (1998) ABWAK Guidelines for Environmental Enrichment. Top Copy, Bristol.

Shepherdson, D.J., Mellen, J.D. & Hutchins, M. (1998) Second Nature. p. 350. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

Acknowledgements

In writing any book the author draws on the knowledge of his colleagues and the support of friends and family. The biggest debt of knowledge I owe is to the animal care-givers I have had the great fortune to learn from and work alongside. Two above all others whom I wish to thank are Graham Law (former keeper at Glasgow Zoo, UK) and Graham Catlow (Edinburgh Zoo, UK). It was Graham Law who showed me that the application of environmental enrichment can be undertaken using a scientific approach. I should also mention that he is one of the most inspired thinkers about environmental enrichment and consequently an excellent source of stimulating conversation, especially down the pub. It was Graham Catlow who taught me the importance of understanding the animal care-giver, and that without this understanding I would achieve nothing. His clarity of thought in terms of practical environmental enrichment for primates is, in my experience, unmatched.

I have had the good fortune to work with Valerie Hare, from The Shape of Enrichment, who has boundless energy for motivating people about the subject of environmental enrichment. I wish I could tap into her energy source.

Academically, I have had many fruitful and enjoyable discussions about environmental enrichment with Jim Anderson, Hannah Buchanan-Smith, David Field, Trevor Poole, David Shepherdson, Miranda Stevenson and Natalie Waran. Alistair Lawrence as my PhD supervisor set me on this path of interest in animal welfare – an interest that also benefited enormously from the courses I received in animal behaviour from Chris Barnard and Pete MacGregor. I owe a huge debt to the many students I have supervised over the years on environmental enrichment projects, and it is this experience that has been used to construct the content of many chapters.

This book was started while I was working at De Montfort University, Lincoln, UK (my old department is now in the University of Lincoln). At DMU, I thank Daniel Mills and Jonathan Cooper for the many conversations we had about animal welfare. I also thank all of my colleagues for their support: Gary, Jill, Joy, Sarah, Rachel, Stephen and Frank. The book was finished whilst working for my present employer PUC-Minas, to whom I am grateful for support and giving me the time to write the book. I would like to thank my colleagues for their support: Adriano, German, Hugo, Nilo, Sonia, Enemir, Thaísa, Maria Tereza and Gilmar.

I owe a debt to UFAW for suggesting me as an author, to Guy Salkeld and Antonia Seymour for being my editors at Blackwell Publishing, and to James Kirkwood, Robert Hubrecht and Elizabeth Roberts at UFAW for understanding the scientific mind!

Lastly, I would like to thank my long-suffering wife, Teresa for all her support without which nothing would have been possible.

1

Environmental Enrichment: an Historical Perspective

In 1985, the Congress of the USA passed amendments to the Animal Welfare Act that directed the Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to promulgate regulations that provide for the psychological well-being of non-human primates (Bloomsmith et al., 1991). In February 1991, the US Drug Administration/APHIS issued a final ruling that states: ‘Dealers, exhibitors, and research facilities must develop, document and follow an appropriate plan for environment enhancement adequate to promote the psychological well-being of non-human primates’.

In the UK, while environmental enrichment is not a legal requirement in animal keeping institutions (i.e., farms, laboratories and zoos), it certainly helps to justify laboratory animal experiments (see Chapter 7) and in the UK, zoo visitors expect to see it being implemented (Reade & Waran, 1996). Personally, I have run workshops and courses on this subject from countries as diverse as Brazil and Russia. Television programmes about animals in the UK often feature stories about how to enrich the lives of pet species (see Chapters 7 and 13). How did we arrive at this heightened level of interest in environmental enrichment? A historical perspective is very useful on any subject matter, since knowing where we have come from often determines where we should go. However, before starting we need to define what we mean by environmental enrichment.

1.1 Definitions

‘Environmental enrichment is a concept which describes how the environments of captive animals can be changed for the benefit of the inhabitants. Behavioural opportunities that may arise or increase as a result of environmental enrichment can be appropriately described as behavioural enrichment’ (Shepherdson, 1994).

Alternatively, environmental enrichment is ‘a process for improving or enhancing zoo animal environments and care within the context of their inhabitants’ behavioral biology and natural history. It is a dynamic process in which changes to structures and husbandry practices are made with the goal of increasing behavioral choices to animals and drawing out their species appropriate behaviors and abilities, thus enhancing animal welfare’. (BHAG, 1999, provided by Valerie Hare).

1.1.1 Goals

In terms of practically implementing environmental enrichment it is easier to think of its goals rather than the various definitions that exist (see above). The goals are to:

(1) increase behavioural diversity;

(2) reduce the frequencies of abnormal behaviour;