For this study I went in two zoos that had newly paired wolves. Even though the wolves had been there for almost nine months they still showed some stress like behaviours and were not fully acclimated to their new home.

• Stress is a biological response elicited when an individual perceives a threat to its homeostasis. It is a very important mechanism for survival and is extremely efficient for short term responses to life threatening events but may be detrimental for the physiology and the psychology of an individual if it last for a long period of time.

• Captivity may subject animals to multiple stress factors such as an environment that can differ tremendously from the original environment the animal biology was developed for, non-avoidable human-animal interactions (veterinarian health check-up, immobilization by darting…etc.) or rarely occurring, but high in stress, events such as transferring an animal from one location to another.

• The wolf is known to be a skittish species, uncomfortable around humans they are especially sensitive to disturbances. In zoos wolves often try to stay out of sight of the visitors and are prompt to link the keepers’ presence to the negative events happening (darting, enclosure entering…etc.), thus creating a negative association and making them difficult to manage.

• Creating new pairs of wolves can be one great challenge as, in the wild, the female sets a territory and choose her male in the selection of males passing through it.

In captivity, due to the need of preserving genetic diversity the couple is preselected according to Mate Suitability Index (MSI) and not according to the animal preference. Therefore, the female will be imposed a male and this will cause considerable stress in both of them. Adding to the pre-existing stress of being released in a new, unknown enclosure surrounded by unknown human disturbances. If the wolves do not accept each other, aggression may lead to unacceptable fighting and escape attempts.

• The unavoidable stress in connection with the transfer (darting, crate, immobilization, transport…etc.) is added to all the stress, previously mentionned, and since all these events are linked to humans they may lead to a long lasting avoidance behaviour toward humans, chronic stress, development of stereotypic behaviour as well as slowed down acclimatization to the enclosure.

All of the challenges mentioned above, apart from impairing the animals’ welfare, will negatively affect several critical activities in the zoos. Therefore, theses issues need to be addressed and solved.

• One way to improve the quality of the restricted zoo space is to add components such as trees and rocks to mimic the natural environment. 
• Another way to improve the life qualite of animals is to include anything that add a variation to in this envirronment like: different types of food, new enclosure devices, blood or fur from a prey...etc.

These two components are often referred to as environmental enrichment.

• One last factor for captive animals' welfare is the human component and the human-animal relationship.

We needed to find ways to improve the environmental enrichment as well as the wellbeing of the animals and their relationship to the keepers.

Positive reinforcement training is a form of environmental enrichment that has an impact on the environmental and human components.This training reinforces specific behaviours by rewarding the individuals exhibiting this behaviour, also creating positive association with the humans in the animals mind.