<img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-825" title="enrichment_options" src="http://aecetia.net/gws/aazk/wp-content/uploads/enrichment_options-300x117.jpg" alt="enrichment_options" width="300" height="117" />

<em>By Sheila Wojciechowski, Senior Keeper, Primate Department
Chicago Zoological Society, Brookfield Zoo
Brookfield, Il 60513
sheila.wojciechowski@czs.org</em>

<strong>Introduction</strong>
The Tropic World South America exhibit at Brookfield Zoo is a mixed-species, naturalistic rainforest exhibit which contains 2.6 spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi), 1.3 capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella), 0.1 giant anteater (Mirmecophaga tridactyla), and 0.1 lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris).  This study focused on creating the most effective enrichment rotation for Jutal, our 26-year-old Brazilian lowland tapir.  Keepers began focusing on creating an enrichment rotation for her in 2008.  Initially this involved developing a list of potential enrichment ideas from published accounts of tapir enrichment at other zoos (Sharpe 1997, Zenzinger 2003, and Hobbelink).  We also visited the hoofstock and pachyderm departments of our zoo to research enrichment being provided to similar species.  In addition, we relied on our knowledge of our tapir’s behavior and brainstormed other things she might utilize.  In the end, we had developed a list long enough to provide enrichment twice per day (Figure 1). This was the easy part.

Next came testing each of the enrichment items to see what she would utilize.  This was primarily done by casual observations.  Keepers made note of what she was and was not utilizing in her holding area, while a volunteer noted what she was and was not utilizing on exhibit.  While we hypothesized that an animal species which is more olfactory oriented would react dramatically to different scents, this proved not to be the case.  Since this tapir seems to enjoy a daily rub-down by keepers during daily visually examinations we attempted tactile enrichment ideas.  Keepers never observed Jutal to utilize these items even after months of trying them.  Keepers did not detect any change in Jutal’s behavior with novel sound enrichment.  She did initially respond to an audio tape of vocalizations made by another tapir, but this seemed to subside quickly.  Unfortunately we were unable to modify her exhibit use through these environmental changes.  Perhaps, it is difficult to get a geriatric animal to change her ways.  However, from our brainstorm list, we did identify seven items that can be thrown into the tapir pool during the middle of the day, which Jutal would consistently utilize (Figure 2).  Therefore, to be more effective for keepers and Jutal, we made the decision to simplify our enrichment rotation to once per day.

Now that we decided “what” enrichment to provide to Jutal, we had to decide “when” we should provide it.  Initially we decided to provide her with enrichment at 1530 hrs because this is the approximate time she woke up daily.    We then began a formal study looking at the time of day the enrichment item was provided with the goal of maximizing the amount of time the tapir was active during public hours.

<strong>Methods </strong>
Behavioral data recording if Jutal was “inactive” or “active” were collected by a volunteer at 30-minute intervals from 1000 hrs until 1700 hrs every Saturday and Sunday from May 2008 until August 2009.  “Inactive” was defined as being in a lying position; while “active” was defined as standing on all four feet (whether locomoting or stationary) or swimming in her pool.  Between the time points the volunteer continued to observe constantly and recorded the exact time Jutal woke up and got into a standing position each day.  Prior to the start of the enrichment rotation, eight months of baseline data were collected on Jutal without any enrichment provided.  The experimental portion of the study consisted of providing the same enrichment items at different times of the day.  We selected four different time periods (1300, 1400, 1445, and 1530 hrs) to study.  Each time period was performed for seven weeks, with enrichment provided daily at the specific time and data collected on weekends.  All seven of the enrichment items were provided equally during each of the time periods on data collection days.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1748" title="tapir" src="http://aecetia.net/gws/aazk/wp-content/uploads/tapir.jpg" alt="tapir" width="566" height="853" />

Jutal, tapir, interacting with one of her plastic items smeared with peanut butter
<em><strong>(Photos by Jim Schultz, Chicago Zoological Society)</strong></em>

<strong>Results</strong>
The time Jutal awoke daily during the control phase (no enrichment) and each of the experimental phases was averaged.  Results are displayed in Figure 3.  When enrichment was provided, Jutal did awake earlier.  However, there was a significant difference in the experimental conditions with enrichment being provided at 1400or 1445 hrs resulting in the desired results of waking up the earliest.  Throwing enrichment at this time of day resulted in nearly an hour increase in the time she awoke.

Figure 4 displays the percent of time Jutal was active during public viewing hours.  Again, significant differences can be seen in each of the experimental conditions.  Jutal was most active when enrichment was thrown at 1400 or 1445 hrs, with no significant difference in these two conditions.

<strong>Discussion</strong>
While keepers often put a lot of time into selecting “what” enrichment items to provide to an animal, this study shows that “when” enrichment is provided can be as important.  It also shows that keepers observing briefly when enrichment is provided may not be the most accurate way to evaluate if goals of an enrichment program are being met.  Our original idea (and easiest for us to see results) was to provide enrichment during her normal active period.  When keepers provided enrichment to Jutal at 1530 hrs, she was often awake already.   (The average time she woke up at this condition was…….
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