Day Six

I like Wednesdays. We work all morning, then after lunch we can relax a little while we have our class.

For the first time for this internship, my mornings were exactly the same two days in a row. Fairly uneventful.

We had lunch, then we had class. Carolyn gave a presentation on enrichment.

For those of you who are unaware, enrichment is when you offer an animal some stimulus that helps, so to speak, "enrich" their day.

If that still doesn't make sense, think of it this way. Imagine. You are a captive animal (be whatever you want, I personally like to imagine I'm a sea lion). You live in a habitat where dozens people ogle at you daily. You wake up, get your food, do your animal's animal-y thing, get a snack, maybe a dinner if you're fed twice a day, then you go to sleep.

Sounds exciting, right?

No. It can be a boring life.

So enrichment helps with that. It can be anything - training, socialization, changes in the habitat, sensory stimulation, and so forth.

So back to the "imagine you're an animal" example. I'm a sea lion. I'm swimming in the water with my sea lion friends. I'm jumping out of the water and delighting the people watching me. Later, I lay down on a rock and doze. And sleep. And sleep.

Why?

I have no stimulus. I'm sleeping with my sea lion friends because I'm tired of the toys in the water with me. I'm tired of people watching me. I'm bored. I'm a bored sea lion.

Oh, hey look. Amy the keeper (not a real person. A figment of my imagination - Gina) is coming. Hmm, what does she have with her? Hey! It's a bucket of fish with my name on it! And what else? Hey, a pumpkin! What is she doing?

Cool. A sea lion show. I jump out of the water, land at her feet. I follow her commands and get my treats. The crowd is happy, they're enjoying the show.

Aw. The fish is gone. What's up with that pumpkin anyway?

.... she threw it in the water. I must investigate!

And so my sea lion buddies and I dive back in the water, lift the pumpkin out of the water, and throw it to the other side of the pool. The water becomes a frenzy.

This pumpkin occupies our attentions for the rest of the afternoon.

And, that, my readers, is enrichment. And it happened. At my zoo internship, we gave pumpkins to the sea lions as enrichment. They loved it. Other examples of enrichment we did was giving the tigers a toy with Chanel #5 perfume, Anna the cougar got a frozen cantaloupe, the polar bears got live fish to hunt, and the hyenas once got some dried pepper flakes with some other herbs.

During class, Carolyn showed several video examples of our animals at the Center in enrichment activities. Even with my experience at the zoo, I did not realize how many different enrichment activities were possible.

After discussing enrichment, she then discussed training. She demonstrated with Sammy Serval how it was possible. The keepers carried in Sammy, who was shut in a kennel, and let him out. He was wearing a harness with a leash, just in case. Carolyn showed how he was trained to touch a "target" (a big ball on a stick). Once he touched the target he would be rewarded verbally and with a treat. While he was curiously exploring the table (yes, he was on the table!), Carolyn started talking about servals and what they are like. They are so endearing up close, with their satellite-like ears and almost perfectly round spots.

Carolyn working on target training with Sammy Serval.
Photo courtesy of Sam Trull

Afterwards, we got to try target training with the big cats! Some people worked with Ramsey Leopard, while others got to try their hand with the lions and some tigers. Ramsey was great, Willow Lion was grouchy and half-grudgingly did some target training before plopping back down and growling every time someone tried to get her to target. Hannah Lion was great with me - she was spot on and didn't give any resistance. Enoch Lion was pretty good too. Spike, Shelby, and Bella (all tigers) did some before plopping back down.

And Arthur the tiger stole the show. He constantly wanted to do more despite the heat. I can see why he is one of the most popular tigers at the Center!

Working on target training with Hannah Lion under supervision.
Photo credit goes to Haley Heniff