Page 137 - Zoo Animal Learning and Training

6.7 Informal Learning–Nutritional Enrichment 109

The sense of touch is the most under‐used
VetBooks.ir modality in environmental enrichment done with great care as it can create all kinds
of positive and negative contingencies. For
despite the fact that digits of many animal
species are full of nerves able to sense subtle example, if starve days are used with large
carnivores, signals that food is going to arrive
changes in substrates (Lederman 1991). can be a trigger, which initiates the expression
Different substrates provide information to of abnormal behaviour such as stereotypic
animals about their uses (Marshall et al. pacing (Bassett and Buchanan‐Smith 2007).
2008); for example, arboreal species learn Anecdotally, a number of strange behav-
quickly that very smooth substrates are not iours have been observed in zoo animals,
easily climbed. The creation of enrichment which appear to be the result of accidental
items with tactile properties for an Asian and unwanted contingencies. At the Belo
elephant was attempted by French et al. Horizonte Zoo in Brazil there was a male
(2016) with good results. The authors giraffe, which would touch its neck against
invented a shower for an elephant with sim- the ‘hotwire fence’ and get an electric shock
ple on/off rope and hessian buttons, and (Figure 6.4). It would seem that this behaviour
these different materials were attractive to had its origin in the animal reaching over the
the elephant, which spent a lot of time electric fence to reach the succulent leaves
manipulating them with its trunk. Tactile outside of its enclosure. Each time the giraffe
enrichments should be carefully planned, managed to grasp a mouth full of leaves with
since each species has its own sensory capa- its tongue it was shocked by the hotwire; this
bilities. Primates have a great sense of touch process was repeated many times and eventu-
in the tip of their fingers, and the use of dif- ally the animal formed an association between
ferent materials in the enrichment manufac- being shocked and obtaining food.
ture will enhance tactile experiences (Dominy The use of food to lure animals to interact
et al. 2004). Environmental enrichment items with items provided as environmental enrich-
with different temperatures, different pres- ment is widespread, but is a two edged sword.
sures, and different hardness of materials will Once animals associate an enrichment item
certainly create the opportunities for differ- with food they will not use it once no more
ent sensations and learning experiences. food is available. For example, a pig might
Sensory stimuli provide a plethora of learn- spend much time rolling a ball around its
ing opportunities for captive animals, but enclosure, but if food is placed inside that
currently they are not applied in a systematic ball, the same individual will only roll the ball
manner to enrich the lives of animals. around whilst food is available (Young et al.
1994; Young and Lawrence 1996). Both the
pig and the giraffe examples can be referred
6.7 Informal Learning to the Premack principle, which states that if
a less desirable activity reinforces a more
Opportunities During Nutritional desirable activity, then an animal will perform
Enrichment the less desirable activity (Bond 2008). Thus,
the ball has lost its ‘power’ as a toy due to the
Food is one of the most powerful reinforce- learned contingency with food. It is worth
ments in the life of captive animals and, remembering that we cannot use food all the
therefore, animals quickly learn any contin- time for environmental enrichment for two
gency related to the delivery of food. Zoo reasons. Firstly, the animals will eventually be
animals, for example, can learn even the nutritionally satiated and therefore no longer
sound of the wheelbarrow when the keeper use any of the environmental enrichment
arrives with food and ignore other sounds being offered. Secondly, if we over use food as
(Cremers and Geutjes 2012). Thus, the deliv- a lure to promote interaction with enrich-
ery of food to animals in captivity must be ment we risk captive animals becoming obese