Environmental Enrichment

Dairy calves provided with environmental enrichment are more active, playful and have fewer feeding interruptions (2025)

Concerns for farm animal welfare have led to the use of environmental enrichment to stimulate natural behaviours and promote positive emotions. In cattle, the provision of brushes is sometimes recommended but their use in calves and the effects they may...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Cattle

Citation: Occhiuto, F., Vázquez-Diosdado, J. A., Thomas, M. et al. 2025. Dairy calves provided with environmental enrichment are more active, playful and have fewer feeding interruptions. Scientific Reports 15(1), 4241.

The development and use of a cage-topper to enhance rat welfare (2025)

The welfare of rats used in scientific research is an important concern. Recent studies show that larger, more complex housing improves rat welfare compared to standard conventional cages. However there are typically both practical and financial constraints to implementing this....

Year Published: 2025Topics: Environmental Enrichment, HousingAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Neville, V., Phelon, L., Handley, C. et al. 2025. The development and use of a cage-topper to enhance rat welfare. Animal Technology and Welfare 24(1), 35–38.

Behavioural engagement of Holstein Friesian dairy cattle with different mounting techniques for salt licks as environmental enrichment (2025)

With increasing numbers of dairy farms adopting zero-grazing systems, there is a growing need for indoor environmental enrichment methods. Enrichment is necessary to meet industry requirements and fulfil behavioural motivations, such as oral manipulation. This study evaluated the magnitude with...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Cattle

Citation: McLaughlin, D. L., Blackie, N. 2025. Behavioural engagement of Holstein Friesian dairy cattle with different mounting techniques for salt licks as environmental enrichment. Animals 15(5), 701.

Physiological effects of environmental enrichment on BALB/c and C57BL/6 strain mice (2025)

Our aim was to assess the effects of enriched environment (EE) on some physiological variables, comparing BALB/c and C57BL/6 strain mice. Female BALB/c and C57BL/6 were individually housed under standard laboratory cages for 6 weeks and randomly separated into groups (n = 7...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Gama, L. A., Almeida, M. A. S. O., de Souza Souto, P. C. et al. 2025. Physiological effects of environmental enrichment on BALB/c and C57BL/6 strain mice. Discover Animals 2(1), 7.

Auditory enrichment on facial and physiological responses of Pantaneiro geldings and mares under short-term stress (2025)

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of auditory stimuli on mares and geldings during social isolation and movement restriction, and their ability to promote the reduction of stress responses. The research was conducted with eight Pantaneiro horses, divided into...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Equine

Citation: Fé, V. C. S. da, Santos, V. M. O. dos, Lima, A. C. B. de et al. 2025. Auditory enrichment on facial and physiological responses of Pantaneiro geldings and mares under short-term stress. PLOS ONE 20(5), e0323649

Guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) welfare: Associations between husbandry practices, human–animal interactions, and animal behaviour (2025)

Research on the welfare of pet guinea pigs and connections between their behaviour and husbandry practices is scarce. Through an online survey among 1181 German-speaking guinea pig caretakers, we investigated husbandry practices (including social composition, housing type, free roaming, enrichment,...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Housing, Human-Animal Interaction, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Guinea Pig, Rodent

Citation: Elsbacher, T., Sommese, A., Waiblinger, S. et al. 2025. Guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) welfare: Associations between husbandry practices, human–animal interactions, and animal behaviour. Animals 15(8), 1157.

A metric-based, meta-analytic appraisal of environmental enrichment efficacy in captive primates (2025)

Non-human primates (hereafter ‘primates') constitute a common group of animals in captivity but their captive maintenance involves ethical and husbandry issues, many of which can be addressed through environmental enrichment (hereafter ‘enrichment'). Enrichment is often applied in a trial-and-error fashion...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Baboon, Capuchin, Chimpanzee, Gibbon, Lemur, Macaque, Marmoset, Nonhuman Primate, Other Nonhuman Primate, Owl Monkey, Squirrel Monkey, Vervet (African Green Monkey)

Citation: Duncan, L. M., Pillay, N. 2025. A metric-based, meta-analytic appraisal of environmental enrichment efficacy in captive primates. Animals 15(6), 799.

Hamster enrichment and social housing (2024)

Providing our animals with the best welfare possible is one of our main goals as Animal Technicians. As we want to deliver the most appropriate care for our hamsters, we have undertaken some research projects of our own to ensure...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Hamster, Rodent

Citation: Devine, A., Boratyn, A. 2024. Hamster enrichment and social housing. Animal Technology and Welfare 23(3), 205–207.

The calm mouse: An animal model of stress reduction

Chronic stress is associated with negative health outcomes and is linked with neuroendocrine changes, deleterious effects on innate and adaptive immunity, and central nervous system neuropathology. Although stress management is commonly advocated clinically, there is insufficient mechanistic understanding of how...

Year Published: 2012Topics: Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Gurfein, B. T., Stamm, A. W., Bacchetti, P. et al. 2012. The calm mouse: An animal model of stress reduction. Molecular Medicine 18(1), 606-617.

The effect of preference assessment-informed enrichment device colour on biting and foraging behaviour in loggerhead sea turtles (2024)

Although environmental enrichment procedures have demonstrated their benefit to non-human animals in zoos and aquariums, the field has given little attention to phylogenetic variables that might affect their efficacy. Recently, research with loggerhead sea turtles Caretta caretta has demonstrated that...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Reptile, Turtle & Tortoise

Citation: Bulla, A., Mahoney, A., Lee, V. M. et al. 2024. The effect of preference assessment-informed enrichment device colour on biting and foraging behaviour in loggerhead sea turtles. Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research 12(4), 232–242.