Includes structural, behavioral, food, and auditory enrichment.
The single housing of laboratory rats may be recommended in some situations such as hypothesis-driven or test-specific studies, during electroencephalogram recording of phases of sleep and after surgical procedures. However, as single housing of laboratory...
Barbering (incessant grooming) is an abnormal behavior causing alopecia and commonly affects various strains of laboratory mice, including C57BL/6J. Barbering-induced alopecia is a potential symptom of brain impairment and can indicate a stressful environment. We...
Many species of fishes are aggressive when placed in small aquaria. Aggression can negatively affect the welfare of those individuals toward whom it is directed. Animals may behave aggressively in order to defend resources such...
The primary goal of environmental enrichment should be the avoidance of abnormal behaviors in laboratory animals such as rodents, lagomorphs, dogs, cats, and nonhuman primates. A total of 13 male single-housed New Zealand White rabbits...
The concentration of glucocorticoid metabolites (GCM) in rabbit faeces has been suggested as a non-invasive indicator of stress. In the present study, GCM concentrations were measured in faeces of fattening rabbits kept in groups of...
Enrichment of the environment for captive animals is aimed at producing beneficial effects on the behaviour and physiology of relevant species, and is commonly used to reduce harmful social behaviours and stereotypies. However, little work...
The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a small tropical minnow that is playing an increasingly big role in the world of scientific research. In the last year alone, researchers working with this diminutive fish from south...
In laboratories, mice are housed at 20-24C, which is below their lower critical temperature (30C). This increased thermal stress has the potential to alter scientific outcomes. Nesting material should allow for improved behavioral thermoregulation and...
Throughout the nearly 50 year history of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) Guide, little attention or content was allocated to the subject of enrichment until the current (8th) edition (NRC 2011). Although animal...
In the wild, patas monkeys (Erythrocebus patas) consume Acacia spp. gum for 20% of their active time. While providing gum-based enrichment to other gummivorous primates is not a unique idea, there have been no reports...