|
Guidelines For Enrichment
This A5 folder is 275 pages full of ideas for the most common Taxa groups kept within captivity. Includes hoofstock, fish, reptiles, primates, carnivores, birds, canids, bears, felids, elephants, marine mammals.
Price for ABWAK Members: £18
Non Members: £25
Editions will be sent to Third World Zoos for every copy purchased.
. For more information or to place an order, please contact
:
abwak-publications@hotmail.co.uk
Mairee Vincent
Leeds
Castle, Maidstone, Kent. ME171PL
(Cheques payable to ABWAK)
ABWAK can only accept payment in sterling and all orders should be sent by
post to
Mairee Vincent enclosing a cheque or money order for publication amount plus postage price see bottom of
page, made payable to ABWAK.
Some samples of the guidelines shown below
|
Box 13.3
Cored cabbages
Large cabbages make cheap, simple yet effective puzzle feeders, as well as
providing a source of food on their own. Using an apple corer several small
holes are gouged out of the cabbage. A large central hole is cored
completely through the cabbage through which a rope can be threaded and
then secured with a knot. The other holes can then be filled with a variety
of different food treats such as shelled peanuts, dried fruits and
mealworms. Honey or peanut butter can also be added to the holes to form a
bung so that the other items do not fall out too quickly. The cabbage is then
hung from the mesh ceiling of the indoor enclosures to provide a moving
edible food puzzle.
The monkeys must reach the cabbage and extract the tasty items. Often
they balance on adjoining branches or hang from ceiling or even try and
balance on the swinging cabbage itself. It therefore encourages balance,
arboreal feeding posture and extractive foraging skills. In our experience
this has proved to be an extremely effective food puzzle which is often
consumed once the food treats have been recovered. However, it must be
stressed that, along with all enrichment devices, it may not be effective
for all species with core cages proving to be a too much of a challenge for
the lemurs if the cabbage is hung up but much better utilised when simply
left on the ground.
217
5. NOVEL OBJECTS
Monkeys will play with
a whole variety of objects that do not contain a food reward. When choosing
a novel object for a monkey the main consideration to make is if the monkey
can injure itself with the object Remember that monkeys are very
destructive so ensure that once they destroy the object it does not become
harmful. Buttons and zips muse always be removed from clothing. The
sort of items that are particularly suitable are old clothes, basketware,
children's toys made of hard plastic or wood etc. Do not spend much money on any of these novel items as they
will not last long; simply by searching round the zoo, in cupboards at
home, in charity shops or by appealing to visitors, a huge amount of monkey
"toys" will be found. Charity shops will often donate the items
they cannot sell directly.
Novel objects are particularly suitable for the more intelligent species
of monkey. Species of macaques and guenons often show interest in a novel
object for a considerable length of time. The different textures, smells
and shapes of objects seem to provide considerable interest. Some species
of lemur and langur seem to be less interested in novel objects and usually
after an initial, short interest period the object is not touched again;
this can be overcome by careful selection and placement of objects. For
example, ringtailed lemurs (Lemur catta) will play on a scarf hung from a branch,
whereas the lion-tailed macaques prefer to carry the scarf around and hang
it up where they want to swing, but the De Brazza monkeys (Cercopithecus neglectus) will simply
groom all of the fur off the scarf. Food items can be incorporated into
novel objects, e.g. hide peanuts in a sock, this helps to maintain interest
and requires the monkeys to work for a treat item Monkeys will get bored
with a novel object, so vary the use of them and do not give them to the
monkeys every day, rather once or twice a week.
|
206
Box 13.2
Food parcels
A very simple way of doing this is to wrap various food items up in
paper sacks and then tie them up with rope. By varying the number of layers
of paper and how tightly the ropes are tied, the complexity of the food
parcel can be altered. It is also worth mixing the food item with some
straw or wood shavings before wrapping it in paper as this makes the parcel
more complex. These food parcels work particularly well with all species of
macaque, and also with many guenons, especially De Brazza monkeys. These
parcels seem to provide no interest at all for our groups of lemurs or
langurs. The paper around the parcel will be ripped off by the monkey and
may look untidy 'm the enclosure, and sometimes causes visitors to
complain. Ibis is easy to rectify with a simple explanatory sign.
OLFACTORY ENRICHMENT
Box 13.17
Scented branches
Another way of introducing foreign scents into an enclosure is to take a
scented branch from one enclosure and put it in another one. This has the
advantage of allowing the use of branches from the enclosures of predatory
animals. This seems to have a similar response to the use of perfume. It is
important to note that there is a risk of cross-infection when moving
branches from one enclosure to another.
218
Box 13. 18
Perfumes
Some species of monkey, in particular lemurs, spend a considerable
amount of time scenting their enclosure. It is very difficult to enrich the
lives of lemurs, as they are not interested in any complex enrichment
objects. However, one solution seems to be either to spray areas of their
enclosure with perfume or introduce a novel object covered in perfume. The
lemurs are very interested in the scented area for a considerable length of
time, and scent marking by the group is often stimulated. This does lose
its stimulus if done too regularly, so it should only be done about once
per week. Also, the perfume that we tended to use was unwanted Christmas
presents and the whole preproom would end up stinking of cheap perfume. It
is worth watering down the perfume to make it last longer and make it smell
less strong. It might be worth trying the same technique with other species
of monkey, but in our experience it seemed to work best with lemurs.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Many of the techniques detailed in this paper have proved to be
successful at Edinburgh Zoo, and are a guide to the possibilities available.
They are not the definitive guide to primate enrichment, but a base around
which to work.
It is difficult to provide a totally enriched environment in a captive
situation without using some unnatural items to encourage natural
behaviours and stimulate both mind and body. A combination of natural and
man-made item can be used to furnish enclosures. Such a combination
maximises the range of enrichment available to animals without compromising
the overall look of the enclosure.
An enrichment programme should be integrated into daily routines without
it being routine, and is simply apart of modern husbandry techniques. Only
with the enthusiasm of current and former keepers for creating enriching
environments is it possible to provide the primates with much more
stimulating lives. A bonus to all this is that the zoo visitor's attitude
to animals in captivity is changed from negative to more positive.
|
UK
- £3.50
Mainland Europe - Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan,
Balearic Islands, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canary
Islands, Corsica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe
Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland,
Hungary, Iceland, Irish Republic, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kirghistan, Latvia,
Liechtenstein,Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madeira, Malta, Moldova,
Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia,
San Marino, Serbia, Slovak Republik, Slovenia, Spain, Spitzbergen, Sweden,
Switzerland, Tajikstan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vatican City.
Europe:
£3.23
World Zone 1: Any country
not listed in world zone 2 and Europe
(eg. USA,
Canada,
Africa).
World Zone 1 £6.60
World Zone 2: Australia,
Belau (Palau), China, East Timor, Fiji, French Polynesia, French Southern and
Antarctic territories, Guam, Japan, Kiribati, Korea, Marshall Islands,
Micronesia, Mongolia, Nauru Island, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Norfolk
Island, Northern Mariana, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Pitcairn Island,
Samoa, Solomon Islands, Taiwan, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wake Island, Wallis
and Futuna Island, Western Samoa.
World Zone 2 £7.25
|