Step by Step Enrichment

Every behavior that an animal engages in typically consists of a string of several small behaviors, which run together, one into the next.  Those behavioral strings may vary from species to species, which implications for how enrichment is provided in order to replicate those behaviors.  

For example, both lions and spotted hyenas are African savannah predators which hunt, often in groups, often the same species of mid-sized or large ungulates.  The actual hunting behavior differs between the two in some areas, however.  Both species begin the hunt by rallying the group into action, going off in search of prey (which may be found through some combination of sight, sound, and smell.  Lions, however, will capture their prey by stalking as close as possible, making a brief rush or pounce, and then subduing their prey, whereas the hyenas will run it down, sometimes chasing it for some distance.  When the prey is killed, hyenas will also use their powerful jaws to crush large bones to consumes.  Ideally, enrichment for hyenas would encourage more running, chasing behavior than lion enrichment might (with lion enrichment promoting stalking and pouncing), and hyena diets would be presented in a manner that would encourage cracking bones.

I recall a presentation I saw from keepers at Disney's Animal Kingdom and Lodge with enrichment for their Abyssinian ground hornbills.  In the wild, these turkey-sized grassland birds eat all sorts of small animals, including small tortoises.  Now, Disney wasn't about to feed their birds live tortoises, nor was their a supply of frozen/thawed ones to be had.  Instead, they manufactured little hard-baked "clay tortoises" with meatballs inside.  The hornbills had to find the "tortoises" (as they would searching in the tall grass on the savannah), pick them up, and then figure out how to break the hard shell, and then extract the meat inside.  Each action contributed to the overall complexity and engagement of the enrichment.

From: Disney's Animals, Sciences, and Environment facebook page.

When you watch an animal in the wild, note all of the steps to its behavior.  Even seemingly simple behaviors usually have multiple components, each one necessary for the successful completion of the action.  Observing and understanding the importance of each of those behaviors can give zoo staff better ability to allow the animals to express those behaviors in a managed setting - and breaking the more complex behaviors into pieces make them much easier to plan on how to replicate.

Inspiring the Next Level of Enrichment Development, by Michelle Skurski, Angela Miller, Christy Alligood