Novel Experience

When I started working at one new zoo, the enrichment program was nascent, and mostly focused on the primates - which I did not work with as the primary keeper.  I did work with a pair of river otters - very active, intelligent, curious animals, who seemed like they would be prime candidates to benefit from enrichment.  And so one day, I took a plastic water cooler jug and put a few of their smaller fish (frozen/thawed, not live) in it, then tossed it into their pool.  The otters had a great time swimming around it and trying to dislodge the fish.  It was a hit with them, and the visitors, and other staff noticed.  Soon, it seemed like every time that the otters were getting fed by other keepers, half of their fish were being put into the jug and tossed into the pool.

What started as a surprising and interesting challenge for the otters became commonplace, routine.  They perfected their ability to retrieve the fish, until they were soon doing it so fast that it added almost no time to their feedings.  To be honest, they eventually seemed bored with it.

The novelty had worn off.  

One of the biggest challenges in enrichment is that even the most fun and engaging enrichment will gradually lose its novelty and become too easily solved, or lose interest to the animal.  For many active, intelligent species, there is a constant need to expand the enrichment portfolio, to come up with new options to add to the rotation so that the animals continue to remain engaged.  It can be tricky, because, as with my otters and their water jug, you sometimes come across something which initially seems perfect - fast and easy to set up, inexpensive, enjoyed by the animal - and then run into the temptation of just using that as your go-to enrichment, time after time.  Why risk doing something new that might be time or resource expensive when you have a tried and true?  And yes, some of the new enrichment ideas you try will be duds that the animal ignores or doesn't like.  There's a lot of trial and error involved.

But, that said, not every day in the life of an animal in the wild is perfect - there are days of frustration and disappointment there too, when things don't work out as the animal intended.  And so I worked to add new enrichment ideas constantly for the otters, noting which ones seemed to work and which ones didn't - and I tried not to give up on the ones that didn't work just based on one flop - sometimes it took two or three exposures for the otters to decide that they were into it. 

We still kept the jug in the rotation, of course - it's just that they got it maybe once every two weeks, instead of daily.  Also, I'd try added some variation to it - sink it to the bottom of the pool first, or plug the opening so they'd have to pry it open, or things like that.  Having their original toy once in a while, instead of daily, helped keep things more interesting for the animals - and, I admit, for me.