Animal Care and Enrichment
The Museum adheres to the high standards of animal care put forth by the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums. Special care must be taken to access specific needs and long-term care of any species at the Museum, including the proper social and physical environment. More than 100 animals here rely on the care and dedication of staff and volunteers, and donations and revenue from benefactors, members and visitors to provide their food and medical care. Most animals at the Museum cannot survive in the wild, typically because they were injured or became dependent on humans for food. If an animal could be released and survive, it would be.
This year, the Museum will spend about $165,000 on animal care. Next year, that cost is expected to increase up to 15 percent, to nearly $190,000. That includes everything from our medical checkups to feeding thousands of mice, chicks and rats to our birds of prey. Help the Museum provide for the care of its wildlife by adopting an animal. Click here to learn more about our Animal Adoption programs.
What is Enrichment?
Imagine
that you are sitting in your living room, feeling a little
bored, and you suddenly notice a strange new something hanging
from your ceiling. Something brightly colored, kind of round,
with - could it be - a Snickers™ bar inside?
Chances are you'd be figuring out a way to check out this new
thing pretty fast. Could you stand on a desk or chair, do you
need a ladder, could you knock it down? You'd be using your
natural human problem solving skills to try to figure out what
this new thing was and what to do about it. If a scientist had
placed this strange thing on your ceiling in order to get you
to think and interact with your environment, they would have
given you a form of enrichment.
Enrichment is the process of providing stimulating environments for captive animals in order for them to demonstrate their species-typical behavior, to allow them to exercise control or choice over their environment, and to enhance their well-being. Animals in zoos don't have the same opportunities for physical and mental stimulation that wild animals do, so keepers must provide the animals with changes to their environment that will stimulate the behaviors of healthy wild animals. Enrichment is just as critical to -animal welfare as nutrition and veterinary medicine.
