Living Coasts has an active research programme investigating a range of topics covering animal behaviour, breeding, and environmental enrichment. Our research focuses on specific questions such as how best to look after our animals, the management, behaviour and welfare of species at the site. Living Coasts provides an extremely valuable scientific resource for research, allowing for the study of species which would be extremely difficult to observe in the wild. Researchers are able to carry out detailed studies into breeding, animal communication and simply the daily behaviour and interactions of our animals.

Each year, Living Coasts hosts a placement student who carries out one, or a number of research projects, as part of their undergraduate degree placement year. The student not only carries out a research project but is also incorporated into the Living Coasts team, helping out keepers in daily husbandry routines and presenting keeper talks for visitors. In addition, both undergraduate and postgraduate students from a range of UK universities carry out their dissertation projects on site each year, adding to our knowledge of each species and their behaviour.

Research carried out at Living Coasts has covered topics such as the effect of wave height on the behaviour of our South American fur seals and interactions between species in the Wader’s estuary. We currently have an active project looking at environmental enrichment for species in the Auk exhibit.

Enriching the lives of our Tufted puffins

Environmental enrichment is the practise of providing captively managed animals with environmental stimuli, such as unusual objects and situations, with the aim of encouraging natural behaviours, stimulating activity and provoking curiosity. This year’s placement student, Medi Hulme, has designed and developed a number of different environmental enrichment devices for the species of birds in the Auk exhibit. To encourage the performance of natural feeding and foraging behaviours and keep the birds occupied during the day, enrichment devices have been created which, when put into the Auk enclosure, the birds’ responses to are recorded to determine if the devices are successful.

The devices being tested

Live rocks: rocks collected from the local sea shore which have limpets and mussels attached to their surface. The birds have to prise off the food with their beaks, as they would in the wild.

Kelp curtain: this is a plastic hoola hoop with strips of plastic attached to the hoop and the whole device weighted down at the bottom of the tank. The birds can swim through the hoop, as they would swim through patches of kelp in the sea.

Plastic bottle feeders: large plastic water bottles have holes drilled into the sides and are filled with shellfish. As the bottles float around in the water, the food falls out of the holes, providing food throughout the day and an object to peak at and play with.

Medi will observe the bird’s behaviour before, during and after the enrichment devices have been put into their enclosure and the differences in behaviours will be compared and analysed to see which enrichment device provides the most stimulation. Results from the study will not only be written up as a scientific project and presented at conferences, but will also contribute to the husbandry of the Auk species as from this, the keepers can develop and implement an enrichment timetable for the Auks which involves each of the devices studied. This way, even after the project is completed, the birds will continue to be enriched.

Visit the website regularly for updates on progress with this project.