Environmental Enrichment

Includes structural, behavioral, food, and auditory enrichment.

Newman, R., Quirke, T., McKeown, S. et al. 2024. The use of a simple and practical water-based enrichment in a pair of lion-tailed macaques. Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research 12(2), 121–124.

Environmental enrichment is frequently used to improve the captive environment, aiming to enhance the quality of captive animal care. Water-based enrichment can increase exploratory behaviour and tool use, promoting object manipulation, particularly in macaque species...

Mota-Rojas, D., Whittaker, A. L., Domínguez-Oliva, A. et al. 2024. Tactile, auditory, and visual stimulation as sensory enrichment for dairy cattle. Animals 14(9), 1265.

Several types of enrichment can be used to improve animal welfare. This review summarizes the literature on the use of mechanical brushes, tactile udder stimulation, music, and visual stimuli as enrichment methods for dairy cows...

Lima, A. F. de, Lima, S. G. C., Nogueira-Filho, S. L. G. et al. 2024. Object play as a positive emotional state indicator for farmed spotted paca (Cuniculus paca). Animals 14(1), 78.

We aimed to assess whether object play can be used as a positive emotional state indicator for farmed spotted pacas (Cuniculus paca) by examining its association with other positive welfare markers including affiliative behavior and...

Holt, R. V., Skånberg, L., Keeling, L. J. et al. 2024. Resource choice during ontogeny enhances both the short- and longer-term welfare of laying hen pullets. Scientific Reports 14(1), 3360.

We hypothesised that resource choice during early life contributes to both current and longer-term beneficial effects on animal welfare. We investigated this hypothesis in a longitudinal cross-over experiment with laying hen pullets (Gallus gallus domesticus)...

Grigsby, K., Usmani, Z., Anderson, J. et al. 2024. Development and implementation of a Dependable, Simple, and Cost-effective (DSC), open-source running wheel in High Drinking in the Dark and Heterogeneous Stock/Northport mice. Frontiers in Behaviora

Maintaining healthy and consistent levels of physical activity (PA) is a clinically proven and low-cost means of reducing the onset of several chronic diseases and may provide an excellent strategy for managing mental health and...

Golfidis, A., Kriengwatana, B. P., Mounir, M. et al. 2024. An interactive feeder to induce and assess emotions from vocalisations of chickens. Animals 14(9), 1386.

Understanding the emotional states of animals is a long-standing research endeavour that has clear applications in animal welfare. Vocalisations are emerging as a promising way to assess both positive and negative emotional states. However, the...

Dijkhuizen, S., Van Ginneken, L. M. C., IJpelaar, A. H. C. et al. 2024. Impact of enriched environment on motor performance and learning in mice. Scientific Reports 14(1), 5962.

Neuroscience heavily relies on animal welfare in laboratory rodents as it can significantly affect brain development, cognitive function and memory formation. Unfortunately, laboratory animals are often raised in artificial environments devoid of physical and social...

Cook, P. F., Reichmuth, C. 2024. An ecological and neural argument for developing pursuit-based cognitive enrichment for sea lions in human care. Animals 14(5), 797.

While general enrichment strategies for captive animals attempt to elicit variable and species-typical behaviors, approaches to cognitive enrichment have been disappointingly one-size-fits-all. In this commentary, we address the potential benefit of tailoring cognitive enrichment to...

Byrd, K. A., Theil, J. H., Geronimo, J. T. et al. 2024. Pebble to the metal: A boulder approach to enrichment for Danio rerio. PLOS ONE 19(5), e0298657.

Zebrafish are an established and widely used animal model, yet there is limited understanding of their welfare needs. Despite an increasing number of studies on zebrafish enrichment, in-tank environmental enrichment remains unpopular among researchers. This...

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