What is enrichment?
Enrichment is a way of stimulating natural wild-type behaviour in animals. In the wild animals will encounter new challenges frequently, therefore, we always try to give our animals new enrichment items to replicate this.
Why is enrichment important?
Enrichment is important for the animals as it keeps them entertained as well as being fun (for animals, visitors and keepers alike) ! Different enrichments can be used to stimulate different types of behaviour from the animals.
Are there different types of enrichment?
Yes! There are 5 different types of enrichment;
Food-based enrichment- this can often be providing the animals with their food the way they would find it naturally in the wild, for example, our lemurs are fed some of their food in the trees as this is where the fruit they eat grows in the wild.
Physical enrichment- this is often physical changes to the animal's enclosure, such as a new rope to swing on or a new 'toy'.
Sensory enrichment- this is anything that stimulates the senses of the animals, for example Terima and Jaya (our Sumatran Tigers) are often given different essential oils to excite their nose!
Social enrichment- this can be as simple as interacting with their friends in their enclosure or even with you!
Cognitive enrichment- this enrichment is used to stimulate the animal mentally, by providing them with some novel way to get some food challenging those brain cells!
Fancy getting involved?
Our keepers have created an amazon wish-list filled with lots of new and exciting enrichment items for our animals to enjoy! So why don't you take a look?
To access the wishlist from a computer/tablet, please follow the link below:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/?ie=UTF8&cid=A3G66ZQH1JUB35
To access the wishlist from a mobile phone, please follow these four simple steps:
1) Visit amazon.co.uk
2) Click on "Your lists".
3) Click on "Find a list or registry".
4) Type in "Manor Wildlife Park" in the search bar.
Don't see anything you fancy? Our keepers are frequently adding new things to the wish-list, so come back another day!
