Holly Farmer

 

Positions: Core Group, Shape—Regionals Committee, REEC Committee, UK-Ireland Committee

 

Hi, my name is Holly Farmer and I am a Zoo Research Officer for the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust and registrar for both Paignton Zoo Environmental Park and Living Coasts, UK. I recently completed by Ph.D. in Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter, investigating the function of vocalisations in captive howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya) and implications of captivity on welfare and behaviour.

 

I became co-chair of our Environmental Enrichment Group when I started working at the zoo and I supervise students from U.K. universities in enrichment-based projects. My main interest is auditory enrichment and I am actively developing the bioacoustics focus in our research department. I am also a co-founder of SHAPE—UK-Ireland and work with Julian Chapman to co-ordinate and develop SHAPE—Regionals around the world.

 

At Paignton Zoo, we are proud of developing our enrichment ideas by ‘getting something for nothing’. We work with businesses, web companies, and visitors to get donations of materials and objects, which we can use as enrichment items for our animals. We regularly present talks to volunteers and school groups about enrichment and our ideas, with the aim of involving them at the zoo.

 

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