About AALAE
The American Association for Laboratory Animal Enrichment (AALAE) is committed to advancing animal enrichment in laboratory sciences. Comprising leading professionals in the research community, AALAE provides valuable resources on enrichment and behavior management for the lab animal field. These resources include educational materials, webinars, annual conferences, and roundtable discussions designed to foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing.
Why is Enrichment Important?
Impact
Discourages/ Reduces Abnormal Behaviors
Behaviors such as circling, excessive flipping, bar biting, and self biting, has largely been due to stress and boredom in an animal’s captive environment. Utilizing enrichment practices and behavior management techniques have proven decrease these behaviors.
Encourages Species-Specific Behaviors
Enrichment such as foraging devices for monkeys, apple balls for pigs, and nesting material for mice, encourage natural behaviors like rooting, foraging, and nest building. These enrichment items encourage behaviors seen in the wild.
Elicits Cooperation with Lab, Husbandry, and Veterinary Procedures
Routine veterinary, research, and husbandry procedures—such as injections, weighing, health checks, and cage changes—can stress both laboratory animals and personnel. A successful enrichment program includes training to reduce this stress. Positive reinforcement training encourages animals to voluntarily cooperate during procedures.
What Does Enrichment Look Like?
Enriched Laboratory Animals
Monkeys
Monkeys like rhesus macaques forage around 70% of the day in the wild. Enrichment items such a wheat grass, plants, icees, foraging devices, or paper boxes filled with treats is the perfect enrichment for monkeys to exhibit this behavior.
Pigs
Pigs exhibit rooting behavior. Enrichment items such as icees, round solid balls, paper boxes filled with treats, and pumpkins smeared with honey allow these animals to exhibit this natural behavior.
Sheep
Sheep are a gregarious species that prefer hay as enrichment. Providing hay in structural enrichment items such as nets, blue balls, and apple balls add variety to methods of enrichment distribution.
Rodents
Rodents are a prey species that hide when threatened by a predator. Providing environmental enrichment such a nesting material gives them the ability to build complex nests. Also, providing an igloo gives them the ability to hide from potential aggressors, while also providing shelter for pups.