{"id":215186,"date":"2024-06-20T07:24:43","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T11:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=215186"},"modified":"2025-09-16T14:29:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T18:29:38","slug":"enrichment-ensures-woodchuck-wellness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/06\/enrichment-ensures-woodchuck-wellness\/","title":{"rendered":"Enrichment Ensures Woodchuck Wellness"},"content":{"rendered":"

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?<\/p>\n

The answer to this eternal question is \u201cnot much if they\u2019re provided with the right enrichment,\u201d according to an article published by James Brennan, Animal Care Services (ACS) program manager at UConn.<\/p>\n

While woodchucks are most famous for their role as an annual weather oracle, they are also a rarely used laboratory animal. Specifically, scientists use them to study hepatitis B since the virus woodchucks contract closely resembles the human version.<\/p>\n

Because woodchucks are so rarely used in laboratory research, unlike more common animal models like mice or zebra fish, there is little information about how to maintain woodchucks\u2019 wellbeing in a laboratory setting.<\/p>\n

Brennan published an article in Laboratory Animal Science Professional<\/a>, sharing his knowledge about wellbeing interventions for woodchucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s minimal information out there about care, about enrichment, about maintaining them \u2013 really anything,\u201d Brennan says. \u201cSo, I thought it would be helpful to share whatever information I had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brennan completed the work on which this publication is based while in a previous position with a pharmaceutical company. No current research at UConn uses woodchuck models.<\/p>\n

\n

With any kind of enrichment, it\u2019s important to consider the animal\u2019s species-specific behaviors and having that in mind can help you develop a great enrichment program. — James Brennan<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Brennan researched woodchucks\u2019 natural behaviors and included enrichment props in their enclosures that allowed them to practice behaviors like foraging or burrowing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith any kind of enrichment, it\u2019s important to consider the animal\u2019s species-specific behaviors and having that in mind can help you develop a great enrichment program,\u201d Brennan says. \u201cWe used this same concept when designing a device to aid in routine study work. With the help of my dad, Jim Brennan, we fabricated simple everyday components [a 4-inch diameter PVC length along with an HVAC blast gate] to make a device they could go in, reducing stress to the animal and the user.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brennan designed the enclosures for the animals himself since there are no commercially available cages for woodchucks.<\/p>\n

One form of enrichment was the inclusion of huts in the woodchucks\u2019 enclosures where they could burrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did spend most of their time in there because they don\u2019t like being out in the open,\u201d Brennan says.<\/p>\n

Brennan ensured the animals\u2019 social needs were met as well. This meant allowing the woodchucks to have visual contact with each other and having the option of physical contact with same-sex cage mates.<\/p>\n

Brennan also made sure the woodchucks were provided with fresh fruits and vegetables to enrich their diets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually found that they didn\u2019t like the produce that we thought they would like, things you would find in your garden \u2013 cucumbers, carrots, lettuce \u2013 they didn\u2019t really care for,\u201d Brennan says. \u201cWhat they liked were the more exotic fruits like pineapple and mango.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brennan also gave the woodchucks access to standard enrichment toys like bones and balls. But, he says, they didn\u2019t pay much attention to these.<\/p>\n

Brennan says that with these enrichment interventions, he did not observe any behaviors like pacing, aggression toward other animals or humans, self-harm, or vocalization that often indicate distress in other lab animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not observe any behaviors indicating they weren\u2019t comfortable,\u201d Brennan says.<\/p>\n

Brennan says his work is motivated by his compassion for the animals with which he works.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe provided a good environment for great research data to be collected,\u201d Brennan says. \u201cThe animals experienced, in my opinion, minimal stress and they lived a happy life while they were with us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Brennan, Animal Care Services (ACS) program manager, has published a paper providing guidance on best practices for keeping woodchucks in laboratory research settings. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":215184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2460,2076,2235],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2277],"class_list":["post-215186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","category-research","category-today-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 12:29:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215186"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215513,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215186\/revisions\/215513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/215184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215186"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=215186"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=215186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}