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Environmental enrichment can improve the overall welfare of animals in captivity and create a habitat similar to what they would experience in their wild environment. It aims to maintain an animal's physical and psychological health by increasing the range or number of species-specific behaviors, increasing positive interaction with the captive environment, preventing or reducing the frequency ...
Environmental enrichment affects the complexity and length of the dendrite arbors (upon which synapses form). Higher-order dendrite branch complexity is increased in enriched environments, [13] [15] as can the length, in young animals, of distal branches. [16] Environmental enrichment rescues harmful effects of stress on dendritic complexity. [17]
Animal welfare violations have been observed more in intensively bred chicken, pig and cattle species, respectively, and studies and laws have been enacted in this regard. However, animal welfare in semi-intensive species such as sheep and goats is nowadays being scrutinised and gaining importance. [37]
It is often argued as to whether the overarching importance of social grooming is to boost an organism's health and hygiene or whether the social side of social grooming plays an equally or more important role. Traditionally, it is thought that the primary function of social grooming is the upkeep of an animal's hygiene.
When designing a wildlife monitoring strategy, it is important to minimize harm to the animal and implement the 3Rs principles (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement). [58] In wildlife research, this can be done through the use of non-invasive methods, sharing samples and data with other research groups, or optimizing traps to prevent injuries.
Opportunity providing has also been found to be important in the acquisition of tool use by chimpanzees, in which a mother chimpanzee may contribute to the development of her offspring's nut cracking technique by leaving "hammer", either hard wood or rocks, and nuts in the nest. The infant is thus given the chance to use the hammer in the ...
Besides being dark and mysterious, crows are extremely intelligent birds. So smart, in fact, that it might be a little bit scary. Even though their brains are the size of a human thumb, their ...
Zookeepers with a cheetah at Australia Zoo.. A zookeeper's responsibilities usually include feeding, maintaining and cleaning the animals, diet preparation, behavioral observation, record keeping, exhibit maintenance and providing environmental enrichment for the animals in their care. [3]