Sea Otter Enrichment

This video demonstartes the connection between enrichment and training. Our sea otters at the Shedd Aquarium were all rescued as pups from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. As orphans they did not have the survival skills to make it on their own in the wild, so they were placed in our care at Shedd. Part of our agreement to house these otters was to take blood samples regularly to study the long-term effects of the oil spill. Understandably, such frequent blood sampling caused the otters to originally shy away from our medical area. To combat that, we chose to make the area where we took blood into the most fun play area possible. This music video shows the creative variety of enrichment we used to make the medical area as much fun as possible. It worked great, the otters obviously had fun and we were able to contribute blood sampels for this important study for a full year!

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Sea
• Otter
• Enrichment

[hydromedusa]

awesome enrichment.... so jealous!!

[scorchedearthdj]

awesome otters