6 ways zookeepers keep animals engaged and entertained
- Mary Schettler
- May 31, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 1, 2022
Are zoo animals bored? It's the question of every visitor, isn't it? They appear to be stuck in the same place, day in and day out but zookeepers work really hard to keep every type of animal engaged and happy. Because nobody wants to be bored, right?
One of the roles of zoos is to provide and practice good animal welfare for all the animals they care for. That would include the big animals like lions, tigers, and bears! For zookeepers, they do this by implementing various animal enrichment strategies for all the animals. Enrichment is a way to give animals an outlet through physical activity and mental exercise but give them the choice to how they can spend their time. A common example visitors have seen in zoos are feeder toys; where the animal plays with toys to get the food out of it.
Enrichment is essential for good animal welfare, helping the animals develop behaviorally and mentally. But how is it done exactly?
1. Sensory
This engages all the animals senses to encourage them to explore their enclosures. Introducing animals to new sights, smells, and tactile surfaces to give them an engaging experience. A common sensory enrichment for predator type of animals is to take diluted smells/perfumes and spread them across the enclosures. This stimulates their smell to want to explore around and "discover" what smells are new about their home. The same principle can work for any of the senses. With sight, use card board cut outs of birds to play with, or recorded sounds of bird calls to simulate the sounds of the wild.
2. Environment
This type of engagement is planned out by keepers when it comes to changing anything about the enclosure. Changing and enhancing the animal's environment in ways that add a level of complexity that makes living in the enclosure fun. Such as perches for animals that climb and fly or new places to hide for prey animals. Taking into account the physical attributes of the animals needs would help determine what to do for when it's time to change up an environment.
3. Cognitive/Toys
Here is where zookeepers get creative to challenge their animals. This enrichment includes anything that challenges them to be curious and think. Overlapping with the toy type of enrichment essentially teaches them problem solving and provides new activities. For example, an elephant is given a frozen block of ice with pieces of watermelon in the middle; the elephant would need to figure out how to get to the watermelon pieces he wants to eat. This is a challenge he'd need to find a solution for along with giving him a toy to play with as he figures it out.
4. Social
This is a popular enrichment activity that's been featured on social media for various zoos sites before. This enrichment type is anything that includes social interactions with other animals of their own species. But some zookeepers decided to extend the possibilities for this kind of enrichment by taking some of their animals (usually after-hours or early in the morning) and introduce them to other animals. For example, introducing penguins to gorillas or alpacas meeting dolphins (behind a glass, of course). A very engaging experience for each animal involved.
5. Training
As demonstrated in the video above, the zookeepers at Utah's Hogle Zoo engaged with their elephants in a training session. This type of training engagement is learned by positive reinforcement and the use of food. Zookeepers do this to build trust with their animals and to help their animals reduce stress of veterinary care. To receive care, especially for the big animals they'd need to stay still for a long period of time and up to the barrier for veterinary work to begin. Training animals to do these actions beforehand desensitizes them to the perceived stress.
6. Food
Food is anyone's motivator, right? For zoo animals, this enrichment encourages to "forage" for their food as if they were in the wild. It stimulates the behavior they'd have naturally. Food is presented either scattered around their enclosures or placed in such a way that they can take their time and enjoy eating. Pandas have to eat almost 30 pounds of bamboo every day, so to make eating time fun the keepers brought entire bushels of bamboo leaves for him to chomp on at his pace. Quite the "authentic" dining experience, huh?
For guests at the zoo, they want to see the animals being active, healthy, and happy. Seeing this improves the guests experience, and it's what keeps people wanting to come back. People that come back bring in more income for zoos, allowing zookeepers to invest their time and resources for more types of enrichment experiences. Zookeepers want to give their animals a fun and engaging experience as they live in their habitats. The next time your at the zoo, see if you can spot the different kinds of enrichment used for all kinds of their animals.
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