Behavioral Enrichment Protocols
Animals at Play
What is behavioral enrichment?
It is the environmental enhancement of the lives of captive animals by providing them
with mental and physical stimulation to increase natural and healthy behavior. In
other words making our animals' lives fun!
Why is it necessary to provide behavioral enrichment for our animals?
Captivity can drastically affect animal behavior. Confining an animal to a cage or enclosure
reduces the complexity, and increases the predictability in an animal's behavior.
It can induce different behavioral responses, such as boredom and stereotypes. Enrichment
should be random, interesting and novel. The goals of enrichment are to offer a sense
of control by allowing animals to make choices and to stimulate species-appropriate
behaviors while interpreting these behaviors to our guests. If the animals maintain
natural behaviors in captivity, they will be valuable for education and research programs,
enhancing the visitor and volunteer experience through individual and group activities.
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The Phoenix Zoo considers it a priority to evolve the materials and methods used in our practice to reach the highest level of care in management. We have extended our purpose to:
- Exhibition
- Conservation
- Captive breeding
- Rehabilitation and reintroduction
- Public involvement
All of these components require managing animal behavior through Environmental Enrichment. The USDA recognizes six elements as critical to environments and programs that promote psychological well-being of captive species:
- Social grouping
- Structure and substrate
- Foraging opportunities
- Manipulanda
- Stimulating all five senses
- Training
The management of the Phoenix Zoo maximally promotes Behavioral Enrichment by providing a successful, goal-oriented, self-sustained program that integrates into the daily management of the animals.
Behavioral Enrichment Articles
- Black Footed Ferret Article
- Common squirrel monkey intro article
- ABMA Contra freeloading
- Mentor program for ChimpanZoo
- Let them be elephants
- Tactics for training apprehensive animals article
- Training programs at the Phoenix Zoo
- Working against nature article
- Behavioral Enrichment 101
- Providing Enrichment at No Cost
- Providing Enrichment at No Cost Part II
- Community involvement in behavioral enrichment at the Phoenix Zoo
- Behavioral Management Zoo
- Let them be Elephants Article
- Giant Tortoise Article
- Coyote Article
- How volunteers can aid a Zoo's behavioral management program
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Incorporating Behavioral Enrichment into husbandry
Behavioral Enrichment Articles (German)
- Enrichmentangebot ohne Kosten - Teil I
- Behavioural Enrichment bei Galapagos-Riesenschildkröten (Geochelone nigra) und Aldabra-Riesenschildkröten (Geochelone gigantea) im Phoenix Zoo
Behavioral Enrichment Articles (Hungarian)
Behavioral Enrichment Articles (French)
Do you have questions regarding Behavioral enrichment? Contact Us - use Behavioral Enrichment as your subject.
Phoenix Zoo Protocols
- Animal Training Protocol - Phoenix Zoo
- Environmental Enrichment Protocol - Phoenix Zoo
- Primate Enrichment Protocol - Phoenix Zoo
