Enrichment and training
Services >> Enrichment and training
Enrichment
Animal enrichment was often thought of as smaller items put into an enclosure for an animal to ‘play’ with. Even though these items still have a use in enriching the lives of the animals in our care and can provide some novelty value for media function they are mostly short term fixes, temporary measures to fill some time without any real long term behavioural benefit. These items are also often single use and unsustainable such as boxes, toilet rolls and hessian sacks.
At Great Ape Consultancy we can help you design an enrichment rota, advise on fixed furnishings or creating removable furnishings that offer a more naturally enriching environment by encouraging species specific behaviours. We can teach skills that will enable your team to build enrichment devices that not only challenge even the smartest of apes but can be used time and time again.
We can also help you prioritise enrichment that is right for your apes, establish enrichment goals and evaluate behavioural outcomes to help you ensure you are meeting the physical and psychological needs of your great apes.
Animal training
Establishing a good training program for your apes can help you build relationships, save keeper time, reduce stress and improve animal welfare.
As an example, positive reinforcement training can reduce the need for anaesthetics in general by training voluntary participation in basic medical care such as topical treatment application and heart monitoring. However, if the need arises for a general anaesthetic, training for hand injection can reduce the need for darting and therefore stress to the animal making the procedure run more smoothly.
Great Ape Consultancy can advise on a range of husbandry and veterinary based behaviours including: station training, shifting and seperation, body part presentation, hand injection, heart disease monitoring (including ECG and Implantable Loop Recorder download), maternal behaviours, or wound management.
Stress free orangutan transport
When a young female orangutan, Molly was due to be moved to her new home, it was preferred she was trained into a crate to be transported. The whole process took a total of 23 days to complete and she was transported to her new facility maximising her welfare.
- Lorraine Miller
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