Enrichment

Helping the animals stay active, healthy and engaged.

Enrichment is another crucial component of animal care programs at Zoo Atlanta. Learn more about what it is and why it’s so important.

What is enrichment?

Our Animal Care Professionals research the animals’ natural histories to encourage time usage similar to wild counterparts.

“Enrichment” is a process of enhancing animal environments within the animals’ natural tendencies to get the mental and physical stimulation they need to thrive. 

Why do we provide enrichment?

Enrichment is behavior based. Specific behavioral goals are decided upon, and items and stimuli are presented to encourage the presentation of those natural behaviors.

Some of those behaviors include:

  • Physical activities such as tool use or manipulating an object with a limb or trunk
  • Social behaviors such as interactions
  • Foraging 
  • Scent marking or anointing (rubbing smells on their body)
  • Self-care such as grooming or bathing
  • Reproductive behavior

We celebrate throughout the year with themed enrichment days. Play the Animal Way occurs every September with special themed talks and animal presentations focused on enrichment.

Would you like to help the animals thrive at Zoo Atlanta?

Check out our wish list where you can purchase enrichment items for the animals!

View the Wish List

What types of enrichment are provided?

Here at the Zoo, enrichment is used to elicit natural behaviors.

We do this through many ways, including:

  • Snakes utilize rocks to assist with shedding or to find a warm basking place.
  • Branches are wonderful nesting material for birds; however, the goats enjoy browsing bits of bark or scratching their heads on them.
  • Substrate such as grass, mulch, and dirt provide different ways to hide food to encourage foraging with Patagonian maras or a digging space for meerkats.
  • Providing mud wallows for warthogs gives them the opportunity to coat themselves in a layer of mud, exactly as they would do in the wild.

Even human-animal interactions are enriching for the animals!