We held an environmental enrichment workshop! ~Part 1~

From June 3rd to 5th, 2026, a workshop on environmental enrichment* was held at the Kyoto Aquarium. 41 people from zoos and aquariums across Japan gathered to deepen their understanding of environmental enrichment over the three days.
*This refers to attempts to enrich and improve the living environment of animals based on the concept of "animal welfare."

Okamoto, a member of the organizing team and animal care staff, will report on the workshop.

About a year ago, I had an exciting conversation with SHAPE-Japan, an organization working on environmental enrichment, and people from Kyoto City Zoo about the idea of ​​holding a workshop on enrichment at an aquarium! That conversation led to the realization of this event at Kyoto Aquarium.

This time, we conducted a workshop focusing on four species of animals kept at Kyoto Aquarium: bottlenose dolphins, spotted seals, South American fur seals, and African penguin.
We were worried about what would happen on the first day, June 3rd, because a typhoon was forecast, but the weather was fine on the day, and we were able to hold the event without any problems.
Participants came from all over Japan, from Hokkaido to Okinawa, and a total of 41 people were divided into 6 teams to experience the process of environmental enrichment.

Additionally, a lecture by the participants was held on the morning of June 3rd.

Kyoto Aquarium's animal care staff Fujimoto (in charge of penguins) presented "an introduction to the wild environment learned from a visit to the penguin habitat in Cape Town."

Ms. Kashiwagi from Kagoshima Aquarium gave a presentation titled "Dolphins in Kinko Bay and Dolphins in Aquariums: What We Learned from Our Aquarium Research."

The presentation covered the behavior and habitats of penguins and dolphins in the wild, as well as insights into animal behavior and cognition gained from aquarium research. The participants listened with great interest.

Following the lecture and continuing until June 4th, we conducted group workshops to put into practice the entire process of environmental enrichment.
First, we will observe the animals' behavior. Then, based on their life histories, we will discuss what we can do to elicit the animals' natural behaviors, what behaviors we want to increase or decrease, and plan the items to be placed in the exhibit area. We actually visited the exhibit area and brainstormed ideas on what kind of initiatives we should implement.
There were so many ideas about things they wanted to try and challenges they wanted to take on, and every team was incredibly enthusiastic!

Even I, who regularly see the animals at Kyoto Aquarium, was excited to hear everyone's ideas, wondering, "How will the animals react!?" Every idea was very interesting!

This concludes Part 1. Part 2 is here .