An online portal for discussing animal enrichment
A group of passionate enrichment advocates from academia and industry are the spark for this effort to ignite and excite the laboratory animal community from top to bottom. Lots of people talk about environmental enrichment. We want to document what people are doing to foster lab environments that foster species-typical behaviors.
About Us
Since environmental enrichment means different things to different folks, especially when it comes to managing budgets, we want to share successful strategies for implementing programs that advance the actual welfare of the animals in our care. Obviously, there are a rich variety of factors to consider. We are counting on you, our readers, to keep the discussions relevant and reasonable. From your perspective, what is possible? What is practical? Since we will be talking about animal well-being, don’t forget personnel issues. Stress in the workplace can affect non-human animals…and ultimately the science.
Our agenda is to engage the lab animal community in an informed discussion about all aspects of environmental enrichment for laboratory animals. We welcome input and insights from anyone who cares about advancing lab animal welfare and has experience to share.
Help us to involve a broad audience: administrators, attending veterinarians, veterinary technicians, animal caretakers, animal behaviorists, and of course, principal investigators. Together we can move enrichment onto the agenda of every animal researcher. In other words, improved animal care translates into better science, and we all benefit.
What is Environmental Enrichment?
The Oregon Zoo’s internationally recognized enrichment program helps the zoo’s animals thrive by improving their social and problem-solving skills. This video explains how enrichment activities are used at the zoo and includes some great clips of animals having fun.
The Enrichment Record
The Poster Repository
New Ideas in Environmental Enrichment
About Us Photo:Gerbil Close Up | Taken at Munich Hellabrunn Zoo | Martyn Kilbryde | License: CC 2.0
Polar Bear Photo: Courtesy of the Oregon Zoo