At Utah’s Hogle Zoo our animals are provided with opportunities to learn, interact and exhibit natural behaviors. The mission of Utah’s Hogle Zoo’s Behavioral Enrichment and Training program is to continually improve and challenge the lives of all animals in our care. We are dedicated to achieving this through active and progressive enrichment and operant conditioning programs.

What is enrichment?

Enrichment is a term used to describe various activities that animal keepers utilize to encourage natural behavior from the animals under their care.

Why do we do Enrichment?

These activities increase the animals’ physical and mental activity levels, and stimulate natural behaviors which result in a healthier, “happier” animal.

How do we do Enrichment?

Items such as piñatas, puzzle feeders, toys and novelty foods are given to the animals on a random schedule to ensure interest or reaction to the stimuli.

Keepers provide enrichment from five different categories to stimulate all of the animals’ senses and encourage a wide range of natural behaviors. Click here to learn about types of enrichment.

Enrichment Links

We’re not the only Zoo that uses Enrichment! Here are some places that give us support and ideas for enrichment.

AZA Enrichment

Ark Animal Tracks

The Shape of Enrichment

Disney’s Animal Kingdom