In a perfect world, all animals would live in the wild—free from human poaching and habitat destruction. Unfortunately, the wild is far from a perfect place these days. Many animals suffer unnecessarily from the impacts of our growing human population. Loss of habitat, food, and water, and continued poaching, create less and less wild every day. The end result is many animal species on the brink of extinction—animals need our help.

This is the main reason it is so important to share our animals with the public. We want to foster a love for animals that helps conservation efforts. Animals born in captivity can be very successful ambassadors for their species. Our animals get to help change the world in a low stress environment with people that love and care about them.

At DEW Haven | Maine Zoo & Rescue we care deeply about the health and happiness of all the animals in our care. Part of that care, is working to enrich their lives in captivity. Animals in captive care need to be challenged through activity and play to get the most out of their lives. Creating enrichment projects is such a fun part of our job here at DEW Haven | Maine Zoo & Rescue, and we want to share some of those fun experiences with you.

Our enrichment gallery is a collection of photos about enrichment. Most of them are from enrichment projects that our teams or individual staff researched, implemented, and then observed how the animal interacted with the enrichment and how successful it was. Some of the pictures are of our animals in a recent habitat improvement (we are always working hard to improve our animals habitats), and a few are of an animal hanging out with their favorite animal friend (some of the best enrichment comes from natural play and behavior between two animals). We hope you enjoy these photos!