A lot of the blogs we write here at The Great Projects include the word enrichment but unless you are already familiar with the world of animal conservation you may not know what it means. Luckily we are here to help and tell you all about enrichment and why it is needed for the animals at the rescue centres.
Enrichment is the act of attempting to improve an animal’s life and care by identifying and providing the environmental stimuli necessary for their optimal psychological and physiological well-being. The goal of enrichment is to improve, or maintain at a minimum, the range of species-specific behaviours of each individual animal and to properly prepare them for their release back into the wild (if they are able to be released safely.)
The different types of enrichment stimuli can be broken down into six groups:
- Environmental – This enhances the animals habitat at the rescue centre with opportunities which change or add to the environment
- Feeding – Staff and volunteers will come up with creative ways to feed the animals, creating challenging ways for food preparation, replicating as best they can the work an animal would have to put in to get their food in the wild
- Manipulation – Providing animals with items that can be manipulated by the paws, feet, head and mouth which promotes exploratory play
- Puzzles – This one is very self-explanatory as volunteers and staff will create puzzles which once solved release a treat for the animal
- Sensory – This type of enrichment revolves around stimulating the animals senses: visual, olfactory, auditory, tactile and taste
- Social – This is the type of enrichment which needs to be most closely monitored as it is the most unpredictable one of them all. Social enrichment gives animals the chance to interact with others of the same species and reinforce their natural behaviours
As you can see, enrichment comes in many different shapes and sizes and all of them are crucial to the animals who currently reside at the sanctuaries. You can take a closer look at the enrichment which is used at the Samboja Lestari Orangutan Sanctuary in Borneo to gain a better idea of what is created for the Great Apes. Enrichment is crucial for the animals at the sanctuaries, and depending on where you go you may be asked to put on your thinking cap and help come up with a new idea to keep the Orangutans or Sun Bears stimulated! Staff are always looking for new ideas, so start thinking now!
