Providing behavioral enrichment for crocodilians to improve welfare in zoological settings.
Crocodilian enrichment development has accelerated as the traditional view of crocodilians as simple reflexive animals has been replaced by recognition of their behavioral and cognitive complexity. The predatory enrichment of providing whole prey items that require catching rather than still food presentation engages the full predatory sequence that sums a large part of wild crocodilian behavioral repertoire. Thermal gradient provision is not enrichment but basic welfare necessity, enabling the behavioral thermoregulation that is fundamental to ectotherm physiology. Combined with training programs for cooperative care, modern crocodilian welfare management has improved substantially from the impoverished standards of earlier zoo practice.