Sheep are curious, active animals whose natural behaviour includes extensive foraging and exploration; enrichment in housed or intensively managed sheep addresses welfare needs often overlooked in this species.
Sheep enrichment welfare is an underacknowledged area precisely because sheep are perceived as passive, low-requirement animals. In reality, sheep are curious explorers with strong foraging motivation that is frustrated in barren housed environments. Providing browse materials, varying the pasture on which sheep graze, and offering novel objects and substrate in housed conditions satisfies this curiosity and reduces the boredom-related welfare problems that barren housing creates. The cognitive complexity documented in sheep provides the motivation for enrichment; welfare observation provides the evidence of its benefit.