In our Fun for the Zoo class, student “fungineers” are
challenged to invent enrichment items that provide stimulation, challenge, and
novelty to enhance the behavioral, physical, social, cognitive, and
psychological well being of zoo animals.
In the wild, animals must forage or hunt for food, and
protect themselves against predators, but in the zoo, most of their needs are
provided for by the keepers.
So, enrichment must be provided to alleviate boredom and
stimulate the animals. Environmental and behavioral enrichment for zoo animals
is all about stimulating them to investigate and interact with the environment.
This keeps animals mentally and physically fit.
Sensory enrichment is designed to stimulate the animals’
sense of smell, touch, hearing, vision, and taste and elicit natural behaviors
from the animals. We do this by introducing objects, smells, and “toys”. We
provide novel textures such as straw, blankets, burlap, and cardboard.
We decorate toilet paper and paper towel tubes.
Then the keepers put novel scents such as spices or perfumes
into the tubes for reptiles and rodents to experience and explore.
One of our favorite activities involves creating food puzzle
feeders. To get the food animals
must use their species-typical and time-consuming behaviors like foraging,
hunting, problem-solving to think and work and solve the puzzle to obtain the
food
We cut up trout, apples, and carrots (provided by the zoo
nutritionists) and froze them in buckets of water.
The
polar bears had to spend time getting through the ice to get to the good parts
of these tasty “food-sicles”
We made lots of paper mache’ food puzzle piñatas. We painted
some like pumpkins (with non-toxic orange paint) for a Halloween gift to the
chimpanzees. The keepers put delicious grapes inside and the primates had to
discover how to get the juicy treats out of the pretend pumpkins.
We painted some red, white, and blue for the Mountain Lions
to have a similar (but meatier) experience on the 4th of July.
We created some nesting bowl food puzzles for the elephants
made of plastic bowls, PVC pipes, and bungee cords.
The keepers put a favorite elephant treat (Fruit Loops)
inside and the elephants had to reach through an opening into the elephant barn
and pull on the bungee cords to release the treats.
This is a great idea other afterschool programs can
replicate all across the country. This class creates a partnership with the
education department of the local zoo, and builds upon student science and
engineering knowledge and skills. This class produces a great service learning
experience for the kids. This class is enriching the lives of our zoo animals,
by ensuring that the animals have a stimulating life with opportunities to
engage in natural behaviors, make choices and exercise control over their
environment. It is all about environmental engineering enrichment and enhancement
that leads to healthier, happier animals (zoo animals and human animals).