Includes structural, behavioral, food, and auditory enrichment.
Swine rooting refers to the natural behavior of pigs to root or dig in soil with their snouts in search of food, roots, insects, and other edible items. This behavior is deeply ingrained in the...
Zoos are often limited by exhibit design in the opportunities they can provide animals to express natural behaviors; however, the opportunity to perform certain natural behaviors is key to supporting good animal welfare. Traditionally, in...
Male Zucker Diabetic Sprague Dawley rats were housed in standard individually ventilated cages with floor area of 1500 cm2, and were placed in a ‘playcage’ (a large open cage) for three visits per week from the...
The aim was to determine changes in clinical parameters, glucose concentration, cortisol and behavior in colony queens in no music conditions compared with exposing to different genres of music. Mixed breed clinically healthy queens (N = 9)...
Intensification of swine production can predispose pigs to chronic stress, with adverse effects on the neuroendocrine and immune systems that can lead to health problems, poor welfare, and reduced production performance. Consequently, there is an...
Many studies highlighted that gravel is a preferred enrichment of zebrafish, therefore we were keen to explore this anecdotal evidence further, to ascertain if the spatial distribution of the zebrafish was significantly linked to the...
Interacting with environmental enrichment can reduce morbidity, agression and stereotypic behaviours improving both animal welfare and scientific data output. High containment facilities are limited on space, do not have natural scenery, the cattle are kept...
Laboratory mice are typically housed in “shoebox” cages with limited opportunities to engage in natural behaviour. Temporary access to environments with increased space and complexity (playpens) may improve mouse welfare. Previous work by our group...
Good zoo animal welfare is commonly promoted with environmental enrichment; however, some species are less likely to be offered enrichment than others. This study tested the effect of enrichment on a group of scarlet ibises...
Stereotypies are repetitive, unvarying, apparently purposeless behavioural patterns. They develop in animals kept in barren environments and are highly prevalent in laboratory mice (Mus musculus), yet their underlying mechanisms have remained elusive. In humans, stereotypies...