Page 135 - Zoo Animal Learning and Training

6.6 Informal Learning–Sensory Enrichment 107

VetBooks.ir of environmental enrichment, are most often welfare can be found in Bassett and Buchanan‐
Smith (2007).
provided to stimulate the following modali-
The application of environmental enrich-
ties: visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory
(see Modality Boxes); the latter will be ment, as it often involves the introduction of
considered later in the nutritional enrich- a novel stimulus, is a source of visual stimula-
ment. Each novel sensory stimulus will be tion and this can enlarge the visual cortex in
registered (cue) in an animal’s brain and its animals’ brains (Sale et al. 2004; Baroncelli
characteristics learnt plus any associated et al. 2010). Thus visual stimulation is often a
contingency (e.g. the sound of a keeper shak- side effect of other types of environmental
ing keys and the arrival of food). enrichment and, perhaps, it is for this reason
Captivity in itself may represent an uncon- that few people deliberately provide it. From
trolled source of visual, auditory and olfac- gap analyses of environmental enrichment
tory stimuli, which may or may not be sources research it would seem this type of enrich-
of environmental enrichment. The most ment has been greatly overlooked (Azevedo
obvious sources of visual, auditory and olfac- et al. 2007). In the past, the most common
tory stimuli in zoos are their visitors that type of deliberately used visual enrichment
stand in front of an enclosure where they can was televisions for primates (Platt and Novak
be seen, heard, and smelt by the animals. 1996; Lutz and Novak 2005), but this fell out
Studies have shown that in general, the audi- of favour as zoos felt that it anthropomor-
tory stimuli (referred to as noise) produced by phised animals. The use of data projectors
zoo visitors often impacts negatively on permit us to create many different kinds of
animal welfare (Quadros et al. 2014). visual stimuli for animals. A number of spe-
Unfortunately, we have no quantitative data cies such as birds respond to video images of
on the effects of visual stimuli, other than conspecifics as if they are real and present in
large groups of visitors appear to be more dis- their enclosure (Clarke and Jones 2000).
turbing than smaller groups (Hosey 2000; For species, which live in large groups in the
Kuhar 2008); but they are confounded with wild but are housed in small captive groups,
greater noise production. As in the case of such as flamingos, this may be a solution to
visual stimuli from the public, it is highly the stress caused by living in small groups.
likely that olfactory stimuli from visitors will Flamingos gain protection against predators
affect the behaviour of species with a sharp by living in large groups and normally show
sense of smell but there are no quantified data synchronism in their reproductive behav-
available on this. Zoos even without the visi- iours; thus, in small numbers, such behav-
tors can produce a range of auditory stimuli iours may never be expressed (Pickering et al.
(e.g. from activities such as gardening and 1992). Asian elephants have complex social
construction) and olfactory stimuli (e.g. from structures and maintain small herds, which
cafeterias), which may be sensed by the ani- disrupt these structures causing stress (Rees
mals at a considerable distance from their 2009). Alternatively, low technology solu-
source. However, if the sources of these stim- tions to such problems are the use of model
uli are never apparent to the animals then the birds and mirrors in enclosures (Pickering
learning opportunities can become dimin- and Duverge 1992; Azevedo and Faggioli
ished. If these stimuli are associated together; 2004; Sherwin 2004). However, it is more
for example, the sound a food delivery vehicle likely that birds will habituate to these stimuli
and the smell of fish, then this learnt contin- compared to video images or even a live feed
gency may be a source of stress for animals of conspecifics in the wild, simply because
such as bears (Cremers and Geutjes 2012). models and mirrors will never completely
They could even induce abnormal behaviour imitate live animals, especially when they are
due to food anticipation. An extensive review added to enclosures of high‐cognitive species
about the effects of predictability and animal (Bensom‐Amram et al. 2016).