Environmental Enrichment
Africa
Rainforest Enrichment | Africa
Savanna Enrichment |
Bear Enrichment
Cascade Enrichment
| Elephant Enrichment | Primate
Enrichment | Vollum Aviary Enrichment
DeBrazza's Monkey
Food dispensers
consisting of a length of plastic piping with holes drilled into the side
are filled with small food items such as raisins, nuts, etc. The monkeys
pick the piping up and manipulate it to get the food out.
 Mongoose Enrichment
An
insect dispenser behind the fallen tree drops meal worms into the sand
for the mongoose to dig for.
Colobus Monkey Enrichment
Complex
climbing structure • rope netting • water mister • Boomer Ball
General
 Bears
are intelligent and extremely inquisitive animals. Wild bears spend
much of their time feeding or exploring their environment (using sound,
scent and vision) for possible food sources. In the zoo we attempt to
re-create these opportunities by hiding foods such as honey, preserves,
mustard and tomato sauce in holes drilled into logs distributed throughout
exhibits. Small logs, with holes drilled in them for food, are also
hung
from chains in several exhibits (American Black bears and Sun bears)
to make the task more challenging.
In
addition, small food items such as raisins, seeds and chopped fruit
are scattered throughout exhibits for the bears to search for. Some
of the more unusual foods used for enrichment include sunflower seeds, dried
chilies and mango fruit. All the bears love to gnaw on bones that
are given twice per week.
Polar Bears
Occasionally the polar bears receive lumps of ice containing
frozen food items. Polar bears are also given plastic balls and tubs to
manipulate, play with and ultimately destroy.
Beavers
Beavers are fed branches clamped in metal clamps so that they
can 'fell' them by gnawing.
 Otters
Otters
are given objects to play with and investigate such as plastic buckets,
balls and rubber dog toys. Sometimes these balls and
toys are filled with water and fish, then frozen overnight. The otters
spend hours playing, trying to get the fish out as they melt. Occasionally
live fish, crawdads and shellfish are given to the otters and each year
they recieve heart-shaped ice treats for Valentine's day.
 Interactions
with other elephants and with keepers is an important part of an elephant's
life. The training that the elephants engage in for husbandry routines,
such as foot trimming, involves the elephants in complex intellectual
tasks. In order for an animal to be trained it has to work out and
understand
what it is being asked to do.
 In addition,
the elephants are fed many times a day and given hay to munch on. Boomer
Balls with small holes drilled in them are filled with raisins, nuts,
etc. and placed in the mangers so that by throwing the balls around
bits
of food fall out. Some of the elephants will kick the balls around and
play with them. Packy, however, usually treads on them and destroys
them
in short order. Food is scattered in the yard and hidden in holes and
under logs. Novel smells -- such as extract of tiger urine! -- are
placed
in the yards at unexpected times.
General
Primates as a group have evolved to live in complex societies.
The most important aspect of their environment, therefore, is the presence
of others with which to interact. After social behavior, wild primates
spend most of their time looking for food, and this is an important aspect
of captive husbandry.
The primates
are fed many times per day with food items that require much searching
and processing (for example, small seed thrown into the straw that covers
the enclosure floor). Rope nets and complex wooden climbing structures
help to recreate the arboreal environment that many of these animals experience
in the wild. Novel objects such as magazines, pet toys, buckets, etc.
also provide the animals with stimulating situations.
Social interactions
in captivity are frequently more intense than they would be in the
wild
because the animals are closer together and because there are less alternatives
to social interaction. By providing the animals with alternative activities
some social behaviors, such as aggression, can frequently be reduced,
thus lowering the stress of captivity and, in some cases, increasing
the
chances of reproduction.
Chimpanzees
The artificial termite mound in the outside yard is frequently stocked
with apple sauce, apple butter, jelly or tomato catsup. The chimpanzees
use sticks as tools to get this.
Meal worms
and crickets placed in clear plastic tubes holes are placed on the ground
for the birds. Different birds use different techniques to get the insects.
Hornbills roll the tube along the ground until the insects fall out, and
egrets pick them out with their long slim bill.
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