From ice blocks filled with meat, fish or fruit to water misters and wading pools these are just some of the methods zookeepers at Adelaide Zoo use to keep its animal residents cool during scorching weather.
Adelaide Zoo's resident giraffe enjoys a carrot filled ice block. Photo: Dave Mattner
Sumatran Tiger, Tuan, takes a nice cooling dip. Photo: Dave Mattner
With Christmas come and gone for another year, we can safely say that the orangutans enjoyed their fair share of gifts too. We were very lucky this year, as school groups who had come into the Zoo to join out "PlanetKeeper" education program, made the orangutans some gifts of food in cardboard boxes wrapped in Christmas paper, specially made orangutan-friendly bon-bons and magazines filled with food. For the Adelaide Zoo Enrichment day, the theme of the day was Christmas so the orangutans got their presents early.
Thought I would share some photos taken by our photographer Dave Mattner of our latest "Enrichment Day". This was Adelaide Zoos 3rd Enrichment Day. They are proving to be very popular with our visitors - and are doing a brilliant job of pushing the message out there of how important enrichment is - the need for both mental and physical stimulation to animals that have all their needs supplied with very little effort on their part.
Every day, we deal with routines in our world. Eat, drink, and sleep. Get up, deal with our family, feed the budgie, get to work, go to school, and walk the dog, plus whatever others you may care to add. Predictable routines, though, are a relatively recent thing in the evolution of us Humanimals.
On February 26 the Zoo held a special “Enrichment Day” which was a chance for us to showcase some of the behavioural and environmental enrichment that we provide for our animals on an everyday basis.
One of the many highlights of Enrichment Day was seeing Tuan, our 12 year old male Sumatran Tiger, getting his paws (and all the rest!) wet while he stalked a large blood ice-block (or “bloodsicle”) which we floated in the lagoon at the front of his exhibit.
Well, today I thought I would write to you about some of the enrichment we give the pandas to keep them active, mentally stimulated and of course having fun! I have taken a few video clips of the pandas using some of their enrichment items over the past few days to show you all what fun they have here. Hopefully Monique, who is the amazing, hard working person that puts this blog together for all of you, has managed to put up some of them for all of you.
Enrichment is a very important part of a keepers job and, depending on what animals you work with, it can take up a lot of a keepers day!
on Friday, 04 January 2013
in Adelaide Zoo
