Behavioral Enrichment

Behavioral enrichment (or behavioural enrichment), also called environmental enrichment, is an animal husbandry principle that seeks to enhance the quality of captive animal care by identifying and providing the environmental stimuli necessary for optimal psychological and physiological wellbeing'. The goal of environmental enrichment is to improve or maintain an animal's physical and psychological health by increasing range or number of species-specific behaviors, increasing positive utilization of the captive environment, preventing or reducing the frequency of abnormal behaviors such as stereotypical behaviors, and increasing the individual's ability to cope with captive challenges. In principle, enrichment can be beneficial to any relatively intelligent animal, including mammals, birds, and even octopi.

Environmental enrichment may be offered to any animal in captivity, including:

• Captive animals in zoos and related institutions.
• Animals in sanctuaries.
• Animals used for research
• Animals used for companionship, e.g. dogs, cats, rabbits, etc.