By Marjan Ghadrdan | Senior Wildlife Care Supervisor
Is it worth saving an animal's life if is to sit still in a cage for the rest of its life? AWARE has pondered this question. As animal advocates we desire to do what is best for our animal patients and consider their psychology and well-being, in addition to their health while they are in our care. Sparing an animal's life to commit them to a life of boredom and inactivity is not in the animal's best interest. While we have things like movies and books to enrich us, a wild animal's method of "entertainment" is survival. An animal in captivity that relies on humans to survive loses that element of entertainment and needs the intervention of their caretakers to provide enrichment for them.
As a result, in 2012, AWARE created the Ambassador Enrichment Program. The program is designed to stimulate AWARE's ambassador animals physically, mentally, and emotionally. AWARE's ambassador handler volunteers come in for an extra shift each week to perform activities with AWARE's ambassador animals such as, sprinkling spices around their enclosures to give them something to investigate or blowing bubbles to give them something to chase, or taking them on walks outside their enclosures to allow them to experience their natural environment. Since the start of the program, the ambassador animals have become more fit, active, and mentally stimulated. The animals have rediscovered a purpose in life and spend their days solving problems and experiencing new stimuli in their environments, much like they would in the wild. They wake up each morning with the opportunity to experience a day that was different than the one before.
The enrichment activities provided to these animals on a daily basis have increased their overall quality of live by providing them with challenges and choices similar to what they would experience in the wild. Ambassadors that were once "anti-social" have become curious and seem interested in what new activity the will be provided with that day. They have become more active and seem "excited" to perform the natural behaviors they would in the wild, such as digging, pouncing, or flapping their wings. So next time your pet at home seems bored, think of the AWARE ambassador animals and break out the bubbles for them (and you) to enjoy.
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