Wildlife Care Menu Zoonoses Medical Care Care & Feeding Caging & Housing     -Incubators     -Indoor Caging     -Release Cages/Aviaries     -Lighting     -Environment Enrichment Identification Anatomy Physiology Psychology/Behaviour Capture/Restraint Release Long Term Care

Animals in captivity suffer a great deal of stress. Cumulative stress can affect the animal's physical and psychological health so severely that death can result. Captive stress is particularly seen in long-term patients and adult wildlife. Animals may exhibit signs of depression that include loss of appetite, loss of interest in normal activities or grooming and unusual behaviours.

Mammals self-mutilate or lick or chew until their fur is worn away. They may pace back and forth or perform other repetitive movements in an effort to soothe themselves (stereotypies).

Birds may pick at their feathers or pull out their feathers entirely. They may fly back and forth aimlessly, throw themselves at the walls of their enclosure and perform other repetitive movements.

Some stress is reduced when animals are housed with or in view of conspecifics, but the animal also needs as normal and natural a life as possible so that it can spend its time budget doing the things it has been genetically programmed to do.

Zoos have long experience with captive stress, and have devised care and housing protocols specifically designed to reduce and mitigate it. Today, most zoos, laboratories, collections and large rehabilitation facilities employ techniques described as enrichment. Attention is paid to:

• Cage design
• Social interaction and conspecifics
• Feeding and foraging
• Visual, olfactory, auditory and tactile stimulation
• A challenging and complex (yet secure) environment

Rehabilitators can benefit from this research and body of work. While most animals are released within a short period of time, some animals are overwintered, and some non-releasable animals are kept for their lifetime as foster parents or as ambassadors in education programs.

Regardless of length of time in rehabilitation, wild animals benefit from an enriched environment, social interaction with conspecifics and enriched foraging and feeding opportunities. Adults are most comfortable in housing that offers them normal opportunity for movement and foraging. Young animals must master their habitat and learn to recognize and find food. Enrichment provides them with these learning opportunities while it relieves stress and prepares them for their reintroduction to the wild.

• Caging for wildlife must allow a full range of normal movement for that species. Animals that swim, dive, fish and bathe must have suitable ponds, pools or baths. Substrates should be normal to the species. Animals that graze or find insects in meadows should have access to grass. Plants, flowers and trees in the enclosure are visually stimulating, offer animals hiding places and attract insects that may be part of the animal's diet. Clean soil, sand, gravel, bark, fallen logs, leaf litter, etc. allow the animal to explore, forage for minerals or insects, or simply allow an opportunity for play.
• Foods should be presented in as natural a way as possible so that the animal, particularly the young animal, learns to associate its natural foods with where those foods are found. Berries can be presented on the branch or vine, suspended from the cage wall or ceiling. Insects can be presented in pans of soil, or in rotting logs. Flying insects can be attracted to the enclosure by pieces of fruit, or by moth lights. Crayfish, feeder fish and aquatic plants in pools or ponds will encourage aquatic species to forage. Nuts and seeds should be presented, when possible, as the whole plant, or while attached to the branch.

Observe the natural behaviours, activities and food choices of animals in the wild and study the natural histories of the species with which you work so that you can provide them with every advantage. Life in the wild is hard, and the well-prepared animal has a much better chance of survival if it knows what it is, where it lives, how it lives and what it eats.

Second Nature:Environmental Enrichment for Captive Animals by David J. Shepherdson, Jill Mellen and Michael Hutchins, editors The current volume brings together the work of animal behaviorists to discuss environmental enrichment, a term that covers any modifications to the animals' social and physical environment. Divided into three sections covering theoretical bases, conservation and animal welfare, and husbandry and training, the various papers cover an array of training and caging techniques for species from primates to hoofed animals. This important volume will be of interest to every zoo fan and animal-behavior enthusiast, as well as those concerned with animal welfare, and belongs in libraries with large natural-history collections. Paperback: 332 pages Smithsonian Institution Press ISBN:1560983973 [see it at amazon.com]

Wild Mammals in Captivity:Principles and Techniques by Devra G. Kleiman (Editor), Mary E. Allen (Editor), Katerina V. Thompson (Editor) Zoos have undergone a revolution in mission and are no longer primarily for the titillation of human visitors. The focus in this reference is on new approaches, incorporating current information from field and captive studies of animal behavior; advances in captive breeding; research in physiology,... Paperback: 639 pages University of Chicago Press ISBN:0226440036 [see it at amazon.com]