Dupont, M. 2017. An investigation into whether food-based environmental enrichment will increase the activity levels of Alaotran gentle lemurs (Hapalemur alaotrensis) at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park. RATEL (Journal of the Association of British and Irish Wild Animal Keepers) 44(1), 14-17.

Excessive weight gain and obesity is becoming a more frequent problem affecting captive lemurs. Animals have evolved to survive in specific environments, causing them to perform species-specific behaviours which animals are highly motivated to perform, within captive environments animals are assisted to perform these behaviours through complex enclosure design, adequate diets and environmental enrichment. The majority of primates spend most of their days foraging, using feeding enrichment this aids to replicate naturalistic behaviours. The main aim of this study was to evaluate feeding approaches to increase the activity levels in Alaotran gentle lemurs. The study conducted was at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park on two Alaotran gentle lemurs; there was one female and one male who are siblings. The study had four treatments which were no feed (control), bowl feed, scatter feed and hanging basket feed. Each of the feed treatments given to each lemur for six days, with four hours of observations each day. The range between the enrichment feeds and the non-enrichment feeds shows that food-based environmental enrichment has an influence on increasing the activity levels of Alaotran gentle lemurs. Furthermore, the results were significantly higher at the enriching feeds in terms of activity than non-enrichment feeds.