Novel items can elicit natural, species-appropriate behaviors.

What is enrichment?
Environmental enrichment is the addition to or modification of an animal’s environment to create a more stimulating environment and encourage species-typical and appropriate behaviors.

Enrichment can be achieved by increasing the foraging opportunities within the animals’ environments. Varied feeding times, food items and substrates such as mulch, straw or hay in which food can be hidden can increase foraging activities, providing the animals with stimulation and exercise while on exhibit.

Scents (spices, extracts, other animal scents, etc.) throughout the exhibit can also stimulate animal activity, especially for those that rely heavily on their keen sense of smell to locate food.

Enrichment can be designed to increase activity by providing the animals with items to manipulate, problems to solve, and control over their environments. Enrichment can also stimulate the five senses according to each species’ natural history and behavior.

So why is enrichment so important?
The animals at the Toledo Zoo are provided with the highest quality of care. Often that very quality of care can prevent the animals from exercising their natural behaviors, which become unnecessary in a captive environment. In the wild, animals spend much of their time hunting for food, building nests and warding off predators. A well-rounded enrichment program can aid animal keepers and managers in providing the animals with the best quality of life and can also serve the following functions:

• Increase animal activity and exercise and the occurrence of species-typical natural behavior.
• Decrease the occurrence of stereotypical behavior (e.g. pacing) by directing animal energy into more productive activities.
• Provide the animals with choices and control over certain aspects of their environment (what to eat, temperature and lighting gradients, whom to interact with, etc.)
• Improve breeding success and conservation efforts by housing animals in appropriate social groups that allow for normal physical and psychological development.
• Increase visitor appreciation and education by displaying animals in stimulating and naturalistic environments.

Keeper Tom Benner conducts an oral exam on a compliant polar bear.

Why should we train animals in a zoo
Zoo animals can be trained to move on and off exhibit on cue, present body parts for examination, and even to get along with cagemates to facilitate breeding. Training the animals to participate in physical exams often eliminates the need to anesthetize them for medical procedures. A training program can be mentally challenging for an animal, as it must think through the behavior being trained.

Animal management
Zoo animals can be trained to “shift” from the exhibit into the holding area on cue. Many of the animals are trained to come inside at night on auditory cues, such as whistles or bells. Others are called in by name.

A swamp monkey cooperates as keeper Nichole Chiles administers an injection.

Animal husbandry
Husbandry training can provide animal managers with unlimited opportunities for animal care and treatment. Animals can be trained to participate voluntarily in routine physical exams and treatments. Husbandry training can also be advantageous in the early detection of illness. With a positive-reinforcement training program in place, keepers can encourage sick animals to participate in exams that they would otherwise be reluctant to comply with.