Mouse cage enrichment

Summary

The transcript discusses the importance of environmental enrichment in animal welfare, particularly for laboratory mice. It highlights the need to increase functional space in small cages to allow for species-specific behaviors. The authors have trialed various enrichments aiming to engage animals physically, mentally, and socially. They emphasize the importance of behavioral observations to ensure the enrichments are valuable to the animals, acknowledging that what humans perceive as enriching might differ from the animals' experiences. The goal is to improve animal welfare by providing complex environments that offer more choices and control, focusing on positive welfare outcomes.

Takeaways

• 🤝 The speaker and Dr. Neumann met at a conference and have since discussed environmental enrichment in animal welfare programs.
• 🐾 They believe in increasing functional space for animals in small laboratory cages to allow for species-specific behaviors.
• 🧠 Environmental enrichment is crucial as it provides physical, psychological, and social benefits for animals.
• 🔍 Behavioral observations are used to test the value of enrichment objects or features in an animal's environment.
• 🧐 The speaker and Dr. Neumann have informally trialed various enrichment activities, focusing on goals like exploration, problem-solving, and social interaction.
• 🤔 They acknowledge that what humans think is enriching might not always align with the animals' experiences.
• 🐭 Mice, being curious and interactive, readily engage with different types of objects and features provided in their environment.
• 🛠 Practical considerations are essential when designing enrichment, such as safety, health monitoring, and ease of implementation.
• 📚 The ideas developed are part of an informal pilot study, with hopes for further exploration and research in the future.
• 🌟 The ultimate goal is to improve animal welfare, particularly for mice, by providing more complex environments and choices.

Q & A

What was the main topic of discussion between Neumann and the speaker at the congress?

The main topic of discussion was environmental enrichment in animal welfare programs, specifically focusing on increasing functional space for animals in small laboratory cages.

Why is environmental enrichment considered important for animals?

Environmental enrichment is important because it allows animals to engage in their environment physically, psychologically, and socially, enabling them to exhibit species-specific behaviors such as climbing, exploring, problem-solving, thinking, navigating, and social interactions.

How do researchers determine if an enrichment object or feature is valuable to an animal?

Researchers determine the value of an enrichment object or feature to an animal through behavioral observations, assessing how much the animals engage with the activity, how much they explore, and the time they spend doing it alone or with others.

What are some of the goals of environmental enrichment that Neumann and the speaker aimed to achieve?

The goals of environmental enrichment that Neumann and the speaker aimed to achieve included encouraging animals to engage with their environment, explore, solve problems, navigate, climb, swing, and socially interact.

How did Neumann and the speaker approach the design of environmental enrichment for laboratory animals?

Neumann and the speaker took an informal approach, designing enrichments around the goals they wanted animals to achieve, such as exploration, problem-solving, and social interaction, without formal testing initially.

What are some practical considerations when designing environmental enrichment for animals?

Practical considerations include ensuring the enrichment is safe for both animals and caretakers, allowing for regular health monitoring, and considering the ease of implementation, cleaning, and maintenance.

How do researchers know if the enrichments they provide are engaging for the animals?

Researchers observe the animals' behaviors and preferences for certain devices and activities to determine if the enrichments are engaging. They look for signs of interest and interaction with the provided objects and features.

What was the reaction of the animals to the different types of objects and features provided in their environment?

The animals readily engaged with the different types of objects and features provided, showing curiosity and a willingness to explore their environment, which was not surprising given their natural tendencies.

What is the ultimate aim of the work done by Neumann and the speaker regarding animal welfare?

The ultimate aim is to improve animal welfare, particularly for mice in laboratory settings, by providing opportunities for increased surface space and complex environments that allow for more choices and control, focusing on positive welfare.

How do Neumann and the speaker plan to further explore and validate their ideas on environmental enrichment?

Neumann and the speaker plan to further explore their ideas through more formal testing and research, including behavioral observations, to validate the effectiveness of their environmental enrichment designs.

What is the significance of the pilot study mentioned in the script?

The pilot study is significant as it represents an initial exploration of the ideas for environmental enrichment, providing a foundation for future research and development in the field of animal welfare.

Outlines

00:00

🐁 Environmental Enrichment in Animal Welfare

The speaker discusses their collaboration with Neumann, which began at an Institute of Animal Technology congress. They have focused on environmental enrichment in animal welfare programs, particularly for animals in small laboratory cages. The goal is to increase functional space for animals to engage in species-specific behaviors, both physically and psychologically. They emphasize the importance of environmental enrichment for allowing animals to interact with their surroundings, solve problems, navigate, and socialize. To determine the value of enrichment objects or features, they use behavioral observations to assess animal engagement and preferences. The speaker also mentions the need for practical considerations in designing enrichment, such as safety, health monitoring, and ease of implementation. They express hope for future research to validate their informal approach and to further improve animal welfare, especially for mice.

Keywords

💡Environmental Enrichment

Environmental enrichment refers to the process of enhancing an animal's environment by adding physical, social, or psychological stimuli to promote species-specific behaviors, improve well-being, and reduce stress. In the video, the focus is on increasing functional space in laboratory cages to allow animals to engage in natural behaviors. For example, the script mentions 'increasing the functional space for animals in small laboratory cages' to provide 'lots of different opportunities and complexity' for species-specific behaviors.

💡Animal Welfare

Animal welfare encompasses the physical and psychological well-being of animals, including their health, comfort, and happiness. The video emphasizes the importance of environmental enrichment as a means to improve animal welfare, particularly in the context of laboratory settings. The script discusses the need to ensure that animals have 'more choices in control' and to focus on 'positive welfare'.

💡Species-Specific Behaviors

Species-specific behaviors are the unique actions and activities that are typical for a particular species. The video discusses the importance of environmental enrichment in allowing animals to engage in these behaviors, which can include physical activities like climbing or exploring, as well as psychological activities such as problem-solving. The script mentions the goal of enrichment as enabling animals to 'engage in their environment' and 'solve problems,' which are examples of species-specific behaviors.

💡Laboratory Cages

Laboratory cages are the controlled environments where animals are housed in research facilities. The video script discusses the limitations of these cages in providing adequate space and stimulation for animals, leading to the exploration of environmental enrichment strategies. The script refers to 'small laboratory cages' and the need to 'increase the functional space for animals' within them.

💡Behavioral Observations

Behavioral observations involve systematically watching and recording an animal's actions and behaviors over time to assess their well-being and response to their environment. The video mentions the use of behavioral observations as a method to determine the value of enrichment objects or features, such as observing 'how much the animals engage in a particular activity' and 'how much time they spend doing that alone or together'.

💡Functional Space

Functional space refers to the area within an animal's environment that allows for the expression of natural behaviors and provides opportunities for physical and psychological stimulation. The video script emphasizes the importance of increasing functional space in laboratory cages to enhance animal welfare. The speakers discuss designing enrichment around goals that would increase the 'surface space' and 'functional space for animals to use'.

💡Problem-Solving

Problem-solving is the cognitive process by which animals identify and overcome challenges or obstacles in their environment. The video script highlights the importance of providing animals with opportunities to engage in problem-solving as part of environmental enrichment. It is mentioned as one of the goals of enrichment, allowing animals to 'solve problems' and 'think' as part of their engagement with the environment.

💡Social Aspect

The social aspect of environmental enrichment refers to the provision of opportunities for animals to interact with conspecifics, which is crucial for their well-being, especially for social species. The video script mentions the importance of considering the social needs of animals when designing enrichment, such as providing opportunities for animals to 'be together or apart'.

💡Pilot Study

A pilot study is a small-scale preliminary investigation conducted to assess the feasibility, effectiveness, and practicality of a larger research project. The video script describes the enrichment ideas as part of an informal pilot study, which was used to 'explore the ideas' and consider 'what are the opportunities that we could potentially provide for the animals' without formal testing.

💡Practical Considerations

Practical considerations are the real-world factors that must be taken into account when designing and implementing environmental enrichment, such as safety, ease of use, and maintenance. The video script mentions that any enrichment must be 'safe for animal and for caretakers' and that it should be easy to 'implement the enrichment to clean two outer clay onto,' indicating that practicality is a key aspect of enrichment design.

Highlights

Discussions with Neumann at the Institute of Animal Technology focused on environmental enrichment in animal welfare programs.

The importance of increasing functional space for animals in small laboratory cages was emphasized.

Aim to allow animals to engage in species-specific behaviors through environmental enrichment.

Environmental enrichment is crucial for physical, psychological, and social aspects of animal well-being.

Behavioral observations are used to test the value of enrichment objects or features to animals.

Enrichment activities should be valuable to animals, promoting engagement, exploration, and social interaction.

The informal approach of Neumann and the speaker involved trialing enrichment activities without formal testing.

Designing environmental enrichment with specific goals in mind, such as exploration, problem-solving, and social interaction.

The need for behavioral observations and research to confirm the enriching value of designed activities.

Surprising differences between what humans think is enriching and what animals actually experience.

Mice's natural curiosity and interactive nature make them responsive to environmental enrichment.

Practical considerations for designing environmental enrichment include safety, health monitoring, and ease of implementation.

The ideas developed are part of an informal pilot study to explore potential opportunities for animals.

The ultimate aim is to improve animal welfare, specifically for mice in laboratory settings.

Focus on increasing surface space and providing complex environments for animals to engage with.

The importance of giving animals more choices and control over their environment for positive welfare outcomes.

Transcripts

enter Neumann and I met at a congress of

the Institute of animal technology in

the UK many years ago over the years we

have discussed environmental enrichment

in animal welfare programs and our ideas

started to center around the fact that

we think it is important to increase the

functional space for animals in small

laboratory cages allowing animals to

have lots of different opportunities and

complexity to engage in species specific

behaviors we think environmental

enrichment is important because it

allows animals to engage in their

environment not only from a physical

point of view

like for example climbing or exploring

but also from a psychological point of

view solving problems thinking

navigating and also of course their

social aspect to know whether a

particular enrichment object or feature

in the environment is valuable to the

animal we can use different ways of

testing one of them being behavioral

observations we can see how much the

animals engage in a particular activity

how much they explore and how much time

they spend doing that alone or together

especially in a small environment like a

laboratory cage it is important that we

make sure that the activities and

objects that we provide are indeed

valuable to the animal the enrichment

activities and features that enter

Newman and myself have trialed are part

of a more informal approach we were

looking and wondering what would be

valuable to the animals and how can we

increase the surface space the

functional space for animals to use in

these laboratory cages so we just

started thinking about the different

goals of what we would like animals to

do for example engage in their

environments Explorer solve problems

being able to navigate and climb and

swing or socially be together or part so

environmental enrichment has goals that

we were trying to achieve and so when we

started trying then we would design

around those particular goals none of

them have been formally tested but that

is something that we hope to do in the

future when you're thinking about

designing environmental enrichment and

goal-oriented enrichment you of course

never completely sure that what you

think will be enriching to animals is

indeed also enriching to the animals and

therefore it's always important to do

behavioral observations and research

what we think is enriching might not be

enriching to them so sometimes it can be

surprising to find that there are

differences between what we think and

what they experience we know mice are

curious and like to explore their

environment or interactive animals so it

was not surprising that when we provided

different types of objects and features

in the environment the animals readily

chip to them we did see some preferences

for certain devices and certain

activities but in general the animals

were very happy to see all these

different activities and opportunities

in their environment and they readily

engage with them there are of course a

lot of practical considerations to think

about when you're designing

environmental enrichment for animals

first it has to of course be safe for

animal and for caretakers we have to be

able to monitor the animals health and

well-being on a regular basis

like daily but we also have to think

about how easy is it to implement the

enrichment to clean two outer clay onto

even stack these ideas that we developed

have been part of more of an informal

pilot study to just explore the ideas

and think about what are the

opportunities that we could potentially

provide for the animals but of course we

hope that ideas like this and of course

many other ideas that others could come

up with is something that will be

further explored in the future the

ultimate aim of our work was of course

to think about an improve animal welfare

and especially mice welfare in

case so we want to think about what are

the opportunities that we have and what

can be done to increase surface space

and provide for animals to engage in

complex environments to have more

choices in control and to focus on

positive welfare