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5

What Is There to Learn in a Zoo Setting?
Fay Clark

5.1 Introduction chosen to focus in on the three overarching
questions posed by Shettleworth (2010): (i)
Contrary to the belief of many, animals can what conditions/circumstances stimulate
have a rich learning experience in a zoo set- learning? (ii) what is being learned? and
ting. Learning can be defined as the process (iii) how does learning affect behaviour? This
of adaptive change in a behaviour as a result chapter will be a broad overview of the types
of experience (Thorpe 1963). At face value, it of learning an animal may experience during
may seem that animals housed in zoos have its lifetime in the zoo, and the implications
restricted learning opportunities; space of these for their captive management.
restrictions and routine husbandry proce- Although some learning opportunities occur
dures remove environmental variation, at particular life stages, for example shortly
choice, and control (Watters 2014). Whilst it after birth, at weaning, or at sexual matura-
is known that highly predictable husbandry tion (Shettleworth 2010), other learning
routines can have detrimental effects on wel- occurs on a daily basis, relating to the timing
fare (Bassett and Buchanan‐Smith 2007), of food and cues associated with other events
zoos can still be highly variable environments such as exhibit cleaning and veterinary
in which animals are learning frequently. checks. Animals are constantly being
Environmental variability comes in the form exposed to different stimuli and their moti-
of staff, volunteer, and researcher turnover; vations change too; and learning is, by defini-
visitor presence; changing climate; and ani- tion, impacted by previous experience
mals moving between exhibits for breeding (Thorpe 1963).
programmes, exhibit developments or
through the natural cycle of births and deaths.
And in terms of fostering agency, in other 5.2 Early Life
words allowing animals to act independently
and to make their own decisions (Clark 2018), 5.2.1 Embryonic Learning
modern zoos purposely provide animals with
more choices and control over their daily We tend to think of an animal’s learning jour-
lives through training and enrichment pro- ney beginning at birth, but in fact many
grammes (Westlund 2014; Young 2013). mammals, birds, amphibians, and fish learn
Learning is a very broad topic intimately from the tastes, smells, and sounds that sur-
linked with memory and cognition round them during their prenatal develop-
(Shettleworth 2010); for that reason I have ment (Hepper 1996; Hepper and Waldman

Zoo Animal Learning and Training, First Edition. Edited by Vicky A. Melfi, Nicole R. Dorey, and Samantha J. Ward.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.