Animal husbandry

What animal husbandry means in a zoo

On a farm, "animal husbandry" means raising livestock. In a zoo, the term means something broader: all the day-to-day care that keeps each animal healthy and well.

It's what keepers spend most of their working day on, often long before the gates open.

What zoo husbandry includes

• Nutrition and feeding: Preparing species-appropriate diets, often designed with a nutritionist, and adjusting them for age, health or season.
• Habitat care: Cleaning, maintaining water quality, checking temperature and humidity, and keeping barriers and shelters safe.
• Health monitoring: Watching appetite, behavior, weight and droppings every day, and working closely with veterinarians on checkups, vaccines and treatment.
• Record keeping: Logging diets, weights, medical care, births and behavior. These records feed into breeding programs and studbooks.
• Training: Teaching animals behaviors that make their care easier and safer.
• Enrichment: Giving animals things to do that encourage natural behaviors.

Husbandry training and positive reinforcement

Modern zoos rely heavily on positive reinforcement training: rewarding an animal, usually with a favorite food, for a behavior it chooses to offer. Over time, animals learn voluntary husbandry behaviors such as:

• Stepping onto a scale to be weighed
• Opening the mouth for a dental check
• Presenting a foot, flipper or tail for inspection
• Holding still for an ultrasound, injection or blood draw

An elephant might lift each foot in turn for foot care, and a sea lion might rest its chin on a target for an eye exam. Because the animal takes part willingly, many procedures can be done without restraint or anesthesia, which is less stressful for the animal and safer for keepers. Zoos often call this approach behavioral husbandry.

Standards and oversight

AZA publishes Animal Care Manuals that compile expert knowledge on caring for specific species, and AZA-accredited zoos are required to make the approved manuals available to their animal care staff. In the U.S., many exhibitors are also licensed and inspected under the federal Animal Welfare Act.

What visitors might see

Training sessions are often part of public keeper talks. If you see a keeper with a whistle, target stick or treat pouch working with an animal through a fence, you're probably watching husbandry training in action. Check the zoo's daily schedule, and read our zoo etiquette guide before you go.