I want to take my readers on a journey. How is enrichment performed? What is the process? Can enrichment fail? What does it take for an enrichment activity to be successful?
First, I want to be clear that enrichment is fantastic and so much fun! When Janine introduced the staff on our first day, she actually introduced Carolyn as the Queen of Enrichment. And it's true. Carolyn dedicates so much time to creating activities for the animals, refining her techniques, and ensuring that the animals are stimulated in some way.
There are several ways that enrichment can stimulate an animal - mentally (say, puzzle feeders), physically (being touched), behaviorally (hunting "prey"), socially (an activity that encourages an animal and its companion(s) to do something with each other), and so forth. A successful enrichment can stimulate an animal and keep it occupied for a good amount of time.
Carolyn has showed us a video of an animal figuring out a puzzle feeder. The video was a good several minutes long, and it seems like it was edited to show the middle portion only. Not the beginning or the end, so this animal was occupied for longer than the few minutes that we saw.
I thought I would share with you my enrichment success and flop. I've already done several activities, and one was an outrageous success. The other... was not as successful.
The Flop
Let's save the best for last, eh?
This past Monday I had enrichment for seven lions - Hansen and his females plus Matthai and his females. I had actually gotten this idea from my zoo internship. I had watched a keeper wrap several pieces of meat in brown paper, then place the parcels in different cardboard boxes, which he hid in the tiger's exhibit. The tiger definitely enjoyed hunting for the boxes (which contained her meal), ripping them apart and enjoying the meat.
I decided I wanted to do that with the lions. I bought chicken breasts from a grocery store, brought them to the Center and wrapped them up. I didn't have enough boxes, but that was OK. Paper would suffice. I talked with Keela, the large compound keeper for the day, and agreed to do it during cleaning.
Problem. While Willow and Adeena willingly entered the shift, Hansen wouldn't move from under his hammock. Uh oh. Keela said, "We can go around and take care of the other animals, then you're coming with me on my pre-lunch rounds. Maybe we can shift him then."
Okay. Super! We tossed their meals over the fence and moved on.
Problem. The females - Daisy, Serabi, and Maggie - in Matthai's pride wouldn't shift. Great... Keela reassured me that she would get them to shift later on our rounds.
Around we went. Keela sent the other three interns to prep for the next day and clean up. We swung by Arthur and Kira's to encourage Kira to move out of the shift, then headed down to Hansen's. This time, Keela was successful in getting everyone to shift... except for Willow. Sigh. As a last resort in getting my enrichment done, Keela took three parcels and dropped them in the enclosure. When we reached Matthai's, we realized that the lions were in the same position. No luck in getting them to move. Keela did the same thing - dropped the parcels in the enclosure.
My goal was to have the animals actually hunt instead of walking up to the fence, going "Oh! There's something here!" and ripping apart the parcel. I wanted to hide the parcels in places where they'd have to climb to get to, such as the top of a hammock or a platform.
As a result (I checked later that day) only Willow enjoyed her treat. All the other lions ignored the parcels.
It was a bit disappointing because I had enjoyed watching Anastasia leap from log to log to the top of the very large tree stump (not kidding when I say it was about eight to ten feet tall) to find her treats. What happened here was: Willow just happened to be nearby and leaped on a parcel, ripping it apart.
When I wrote about it for Carolyn to sign off on (we are required to do an enrichment activity each week for an assigned group of animals), I wrote that:
- It was hot. The lions probably didn't feel like getting up and moving.
- It was right after they had eaten their normal meals of chicken. They weren't hungry.
- Again, it was hot. We left the chicken in the enclosures, but if the lions were somewhat hungry for a snack later, they probably sensed that the chicken had gone bad (if it did).
- If I did this again, I would want the animals to be shifted properly. Perhaps if it was cooler - a different time of the year, or earlier/later in the day (it was around noon when I handed out enrichment). The animals would have to be hungry.
The Non-Flop
I had a pretty successful enrichment a couple of weeks ago. My friend, Liz, had advised me to use whipped cream as enrichment for the big cats. I took her advice and ran with it.
First, I bought this. I got some pretty strange looks when I was paying for it at Lowes, but you gotta do what you gotta do!
The animals were put in the shifts. My goal was for all five animals (three lions and two tigers - I had the Mixed Pride) to be in a shift together, but Freya Tiger slinked out before Carolyn got the door shut. Carolyn ended up putting her in the shift at the bottom of the enclosure by herself.
I don't have a picture of this, but Carolyn and I set out five cardboard boxes and filled them with whipped cream. Once everything was done, it began to rain... We hurried out and Carolyn set the "beasts" free to destroy the whipped cream. Enjoy the photo set!
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| This is probably my favorite picture in the set. If you look closely at Calvin's mane, you can see whipped cream in it. |
This one was overall a success, and my favorite activity so far. I think I'm now known as the "Whipped Cream Lady" to these cats! My only criticism was that Freya should have been in the shift with the other cats, because she was let out last and had to "mooch" off the others.
I have a really neat idea for enrichment this week involving the servals. It needs to be approved, but if I go through with it, expect a post with pictures!
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