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104 6 Environmental Enrichment: Opportunities for Learning

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Figure 6.3 Allomothering in collared‐peccaries (Pecari tajacu). Source: Carlos Magno de Faria.

of the situation (Rees 2011). Many species in captivity, this situation from an enrichment
the wild live in complex social networks, point‐of‐view has been recreated by provid-
where they need to be constantly monitoring ing animals with multiple rooms or even
and learning about not only their own social enclosures to travel between (Coe and
interactions but those of relatives and com- Dykstra 2010; Coe 2012). For example, the
petitors alike. These social networks are usu- orangutans at the Smithsonian National Zoo
ally dynamic in nature and so individuals in Washington DC may travel by overhead
must be constantly updating themselves on cables to different enclosures to avoid certain
what is happening within their social group. individuals, to be with certain individuals or
In certain species, such as chimpanzees this just to be on their own.
situation is rightly equated with politics The arrival of internet video calling has
(Brosnan 2007), but unfortunately most cap- created a number of extremely interesting
tive chimpanzee groups are small in terms of social enrichment opportunities; for exam-
the number of individuals. It is important to ple, the ability of animals of the same species
remember here that as group size increases (or even different species) to interact visually
social complexity increases exponentially and auditory in a remote manner. This could
(Kempe and Mesoudi 2014). It is for exactly prove, for some species, to be extremely
this reason that Humphrey (1976) suggested stimulating and have practical applications.
that the large apes are often very occupied in For example, if you were wishing to transfer a
captivity by the political machinations of female chimpanzee to a new group it would
their own making. be possible for her to see and interact with
In the wild, large groups of social animals individuals in her future group. Thus, facili-
do not always stay together as a single group, tating her learning about her new group
but may form subgroups, which split off for members and, perhaps, even the layout of
foraging purposes and then return to the her future enclosure (Tibbetts and Dale
main group (Reboreda and Fernandez 1997; 2007). Video presentations were also used as
Michelena et al. 2009). This adds to social environmental enrichment for European
complexity in terms of social monitoring. In starlings, but they were not effective in the