The effect of environmental enrichment on the behaviour of meerkats, banded mongooses and dwarf mongooses in human care.

Animals in captivity can be deprived of performing some of their natural behaviours. Using enrichments may allow them to express a larger part of species-specific behaviour repertoire and with a better frequency distribution. This study focuses on three species of the family Herpestidae which live in captivity at Bioparc Valencia (Spain). The project aims to study the effect of environmental enrichment on the behaviour of meerkats, banded mongooses and dwarf mongooses in human care. To achieve this goal two different types of enrichmentswere tested: (1) a food enrichment with several variations and (2) an olfactory enrichment with the presentation of two new odours. The food enrichment aimed to increase foraging behaviour and the olfactory enrichment aimed to test if captive animals behave differently in the presence of a predator’s odour compared to a non-predator’s odour. Results revealed that foraging can increase up to 16% implementing enrichments and that success depends on the presence and quantity of food. On the other hand, animals did not seem to behave differently in the presence of both odours. The frequencies of behaviours and time spent interacting did not differ between these olfactory enrichments. I conclude that implementing enrichment programmes may ensure better welfare for captive animals