Making the captive environments of our animals as complex, engaging and enriched as they can be is the goal of the Detroit Zoological Society’s Enrichment Program.

What is enrichment?

Enrichment is the process of enhancing over-all captive animal welfare by providing appropriate physical, social, and environmental conditions and stimuli. Enrichment is a dynamic process based on each animal’s biology, natural history and individual needs. Continuous monitoring of individual animal’s unique needs in conjunction with regular refinement of enrichment practices ensures continued complexity of the animal’s environment and encourages and engages them in species typical behaviors.

How do animals benefit from enrichment?

• Increases over-all animal welfare by providing physical and psychological stimuli.
• Provides opportunities for species typical behavior.
• Provides opportunities for choice and control over environment.
• Alleviates boredom and stereotypic behaviors.
• Promotes activity.

Adopt an Animal
"Adopt" an animal is a program that helps the Zoo take care of the animal you select. Your symbolic animal adoption helps provide veterinary treatment, improve exhibits, sponsor educational classes, seminars and research expeditions. More importantly, your assistance makes the Zoo’s participation in the Species Survival Plans possible.  

What are the different types of enrichment?

Food
Varied use of daily food items as well as novel treats is the most common type of enrichment. An animals’ daily diet as well as other special treat foods are often hidden throughout an exhibit or prepared and placed in a unique manner to stimulate various behaviors such as foraging and stalking.

Scents, daily diet foods and treats scattered throughout an exhibit or hidden within a toy requiring manipulation, live fish swimming in a pool, cereal hidden amongst a leaf pile, honey dabbed on a tree, meal worms and crickets wiggling inside a hollow log, fish or produce frozen in blocks of ice are examples of valuable uses of food items as enrichment. 

Artificial Objects
Industrial strength "toys" are designed and built carefully with individual animals’ needs in mind. Boomer balls, PVC piping, barrels, kegs; puzzle feeders are all created to encourage activity. Some toys roll, some hang in trees, some contain holes drilled throughout to allow treats or scents to be placed inside. As the animal manipulates the toy the treats fall out.

Often these toys can be hung in combination with other items including browse to create intriguing puzzles for the animals.

Browse
The addition of edible trees, plants, vines and flowers to an animal’s exhibit is very enriching to many species. Zookeepers find endless creative methods to feed out browse. Browse can hang in a tree, be hidden in a toy or specialized feeder and hidden amongst other items such as branches or leaf piles. Keepers create "treat kabobs" by sticking pieces of produce on the larger browse branches.

Summer browse items are harvested and frozen for winter consumption and in our greenhouses we "force" browse growth for additional winter supplies.

Change in landscape
The addition of a variety of new plants to an exhibit or the addition of a very large tree or branch can provide
valuable enrichment opportunities to engage in behaviors such as climbing, hiding, and foraging.

 Creating a mud wallow, tilling the current substrate, adding wood shavings, wood chips, or sand piles all enhance their environment an thus stimulate activity.

Tactile
This type of enrichment is similar to changing the exhibit landscape and involves the addition of various textures to their habitat. Some examples include: ice, snow, pools, streams, sprinklers, branches or bark, leaves, dirt, shredded paper, hay or straw. Nesting, bathing, and denning are just a few of the behaviors seen with the addition of varying textures.

Scents
The introduction of new or familiar scents is very enriching to many species. Scents vary widely from perfumes to spices to natural scents of other animals. Scents may be scattered throughout an exhibit, placed inside toys, boxes, or bags, or even hidden within a specially created "piñata". Species typical behaviors such as stalking and foraging are encouraged with the addition of scents.

Trading toys from one animal to another is also great method of achieving scent enrichment.

Auditory/sound
Filling the air with sound, both familiar species typical vocalizations as well as novel sounds, evokes a variety of social behaviors and sometimes even breeding activity.

 Nature sounds such as water or wind, music, wind chimes, bells, and drums are all used as part of our sound enrichment program as well.


Seasonal Opportunities
Certain items are abundant only during specific seasons of the year. Winter items such as snow, ice, and even recycled Christmas trees provide valuable enrichment opportunities. Flowers, grasses, browse, special fruits and vegetables along with the addition of pools, streams, waterfalls and sprinklers are important spring and summer enrichment additions. In the fall we utilize the abundance of pumpkins and corn stalks.

How Our Volunteers Help

How You Can Help

Become a volunteer and assist in our Enrichment Program.

Attend special "Enrichment Days" scheduled at the Zoo.