Animals at touchscreens

Variable enrichment opportunities, which can be adjusted to the individual needs and preferences of zoo animals, are extremely important. Zoo-animals need to be challenged not only physically, but also mentally to ensure good animal welfare. Especially for highly intelligent species suitable enrichment is often missing. Our touchscreen-systems now provide zoo-housed animals with exiting computer-interactions and help us to figure out what they like most.

We would like to not only provide the animals at Zoo Heidelberg with new and exciting enrichment opportunities, but simultaneously, evaluate scientifically how zoo-housed animals can be best stimulated. Therefore, all touchscreen-interactions will be observed and analyzed. We will examine how long each animal uses which program, whether it has specific preferences, and whether there are differences between individuals and/or species. While working with the animals the zoo-visitors can follow the ongoing research and learn about the amazing abilities and the conservation of zoo animals.

Help us to keep our project alive! We need your help to continuously provide the apes, monkeys and birds housed at Zoo Heidelberg with this digital enrichment activity. If the project is successfully funded, the already experienced animals are going to enjoy one of their favorite enrichment items, we examine scientifically which computer programs they prefer, and adjust them accordingly. This will help us and other zoos to develop suitable enrichment opportunities and to improve animal welfare. Furthermore, if you support us even further, we will be able to include even more animal species into the project!

If we reach our first funding goal, we are going to examine which computer programs the already experienced animals like best. Therefore, the animals are going to be able to choose between different cognitive tasks, digital painting programs, and movies. With this information, we can develop individual enrichment activities for each animal. If we even reach our second funding goal, we will expand our project to new animal species at the zoo and test whether e.g. zebras, goats, lions and meerkats would like to interact with the touchscreen-systems.