SPIDER Explained

Setting the Behavioural Goal

This is the important bit!

1. Natural History is key—understanding the animal's overall behavioural repertoire is important to designing enrichment. Is the animal a swimmer, a jumper, a climber etc? 

2. The camp history is also key—what limitations and solutions does it provide you in your designing of the enrichment? Can you get your creations through the door? 

3. The individual history of the animal(s) is key too—are they old, young, solitary, group-housed, any medical issues etc? These questions all play into your designing of enrichment.

Here are some examples:

• To encourage the animal to do a specific behaviour such as jump, swim, leap, stretch, dig etc.

•  To discourage the animal from doing a specific unsafe or unsound behaviour, such as digging, chewing its paw, remaining inert, doing stereotypical actions, showing aggression etc.

• To increase space utilization.

• To increase tactile/dexterity behaviours.

• To enhance social interplay between primates.

 A goal helps us focus our design during the planning phase. 

For further information on the actual questions, go visit Disney Animal Kingdom website or view the documentation from Lory Park Zoo SPIDER Project System within this site. 

Planning the Process and Methods

Deciding what materials to use.

1. 1. • Consider safety issues surrounding the materials

      • Consider availability

      • Always consider cost

      • Its visibility and aesthetics must also be considered.  Will it be viewed by public or is it purely for the animals benefit?

How you intend to construct the item

1. 1. Safety of the building process and end result is important to think about while building! 

   2. Do you have space to build the item, or does it have to be built elsewhere?

   3. Is it 

      • • small, easily constructed?

        • large and cumbersome? 

        • Can it be moved easily?

   4. Does it need to be built inside the animal's environment? What needs to be planned to achieve this!

      • How do you manage the animal while you are in the environment?

   5.  If build outside, can it fit through the door/gate and be easily installed? 

Some broad safety considerations and experience when creating enrichment

1. 7. Consider the animal's physiology and behaviours—design accordingly! Imagine: hands getting stuck in holes that are too small, or swallowing sharp items that break-off.

   8. Consider the animal's age and experience—design accordingly! Remember some animals might be neophobic (scared of new things), so are unable to handle a big idea.

   9. Where are you putting the enrichment? On the floor, hung-up, tied-down, loose, floating—where?

   10. How many items are you placing? How many animals are there? Rule of thumb is to offer more than the number of animals, especially with animals that are social by nature like primates and certain carnivores.

   11. How are you going to evaluate the animal's reaction?

   12. Use of 

       • • handheld video and photos to capture the evidence.

         • camera traps for further non-contact evidence.

   13. Design and implement an Ethogram. (A data-driven science-based method).

   14. Anecdotal evidence from keepers and visitors—jotted down in diaries and verbal reporting.

   15. Structural/environmental evidence—post-enrichment results: broken toys, destroyed items, moved items etc.

   16. Who is going to capture the data?

   17. When are they going to capture the data? At the moment of presenting, during the entire day, only at night?

   18. For how long is the data to be captured—minutes, hours, days, months?

Implementing the Project

The planning is done. This is the fun part, the doing!

1. The actual placement—decided long in advance and planned! 

2. The documenting—who, when etc.

3. The cleaning-up and removal. Who does it and how can you make their job easier?

Documenting the Process

As in Planning you need to plan how you intend to record and document the process or experience!

• Design or use an already pre made Ethogram (list of behaviours) for your project. 

Ethograms are used for more formal research based projects with the intend to observe for long periods of time. 

• Video footage via a cell phone, camera trap, go-pro or other means.

• Still footage and imagery. 

Evaluating your Results 

This is when it's done; the animal has had fun, we have giggled and sighed. Coffee time—time to sit and discuss. Did it work?

Yes—great!

• What can we do better?

• Can we reuse this enrichment?

• Can it be used for other species?

• Will the animal get bored or too accustomed too quickly to this enrichment?

No—oh dear!

• What went wrong?

• What can we do to fix it?

• Should we try? If so, let's redo, change, adapt and re-evaluate — wash, rinse, repeat!

Refining

After evaluation, get to work refining your solutions and start SPIDERing again!