The high incidence of Stereotypie behaviors in zoo bears (van Keulen-Kromhout: International Zoo Yearbook 18:177-186, 1978) suggests that the environment of these animals lacks essential stimuli for guiding normal behavior. Three experiments investigated ways in which bear husbandry procedures can be altered to promote normal behavior. In experiments 1 and 2, honey-filled logs were given to a s...

The ex situ population of maned wolves is not self-sustaining due to poor reproduction, caused primarily by parental incompetence. Studies have shown that environmental enrichment can promote natural parental behaviors in zoo animals. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of environmental enrichment on behavioral and physiological responses of maned wolves. During an 8-week e...

Neuronal plasticity is a central theme of modern neurobiology, from cellular and molecular mechanisms of synapse formation in Drosophila to behavioural recovery from strokes in elderly humans. Although the methods used to measure plastic responses differ, the stimuli required to elicit plasticity are thought to be activity-dependent. In this article, we focus on the neuronal changes that occur ...

The Central Park Zoo, one of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Living Institutions in New York, recently renovated an exhibit for dart-poison frogs. Staff developed a new hollow coconut insect feeder in conjunction with this project. When the exhibit change, coconut feeder, and other enrichments were tested for effectiveness, the coconut feeder enrichment produced the greatest increase in fro...

’ Division of Geriatric Medicine, NEUROTEC, Karolinska Institute& S-141 86 Huddinge, Sweden 2 Division of Molecular Neurobiology, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, S-I 71 77 Stockholm, Sweden 3 Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3140, USA 4 Deparmtent of Clinical Neuroscience, Sahlgrensko University Hospital, G...

A decline in learning and memory is a feature of the normal aging process and associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, certain forms of dementia and memory loss are inevitable due to the normal aging process. The unavoidable effect of age on memory is an ongoing study, as the findings assist in identifying cortical functions of the brain. Hi...

Environmental enrichment is known to positively influence the organism's psychologic and physiologic well-being. However, the effects of environmental enrichment on immune responses and cancer prognosis have not been clearly established and its impact on cancer therapy is unknown. Here, we report that environmental enrichment mediated a statistically significant improvement of the outcome of im...

Recommendations to cat owners to house their cats indoors confer the responsibility to provide conditions that ensure good health and welfare. Cats maintain their natural behaviors, such as scratching, chewing, and elimination, while living indoors, and they may develop health and behavior problems when deprived of appropriate environmental outlets for these behaviors. This article divides the ...

INTRODUCTION: Enriched environments normally increase behavioral repertoires and diminish the expression of abnormal behaviors and stress-related physiological problems in animals. Although it has been shown that experimental animals infected with microorganisms can modify their behaviors and physiology, few studies have evaluated how environmental enrichment affects these parameters. This stud...