Keynote Abstract
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Going with the flow: Enhancing welfare by giving animals challenges that match their skills Improving animal welfare through enrichment involves not only minimizing the negative, but increasing the positive. Animal welfare science has traditionally focused on developing methods to understand and decrease negative affective states like pain, frustration and distress. However, there is now increasing interest in understanding and fostering positive affective states in animals – in other words, making animals “happy,” not just stress-free. Research on humans has identified a key element of human happiness – the match between skills and challenges. Most animal enrichment efforts have been directed towards increasing stimulation and challenge in barren housing conditions in order to increase animals’ behavioral repertoire. Challenge is good, but humans faced with challenges that exceed their skills experience anxiety. When the challenges are perfectly matched to their skills, however, they experience sensations of control and ultimately “flow” – a state of effortless concentration and enjoyment. This presentation will discuss how we might help captive animals “go with the flow” by providing them with physical or cognitive challenges that match their skill sets. |