Buckets, Balls and Bungees
Wednesday, 16 June 2010 15:11
Hi everyone!
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!
It is huge business throughout the zoo keeping world, with lots of keepers passing on wonderful ideas and suggestions to each other throughout different institutions, even to captive institutions on the other side of the world! There are several things that have to happen before it actually comes time to put an enrichment item in with an animal though. One of the first steps that a keeper needs to think about and research the animals natural behaviour. What does this animal do in the wild? Does it climb or swim? Does it hunt, graze or scavenge? Is the animal able to move its arms to manipulate items or is it even motivated to use devices? What is their best sense…sight, smell or maybe hearing?
In the case of the Giant Panda there are lots of things that we can consider. They climb, like the water, are very food motivated and also intelligent. They have paws that are able to manipulate objects and are also very strong. Also, their best sense is smell.
We provide the pandas with various types of enrichment, some are food based but a lot are not. The pandas really seem to be happy to interact with objects that does not always result in them getting a food reward so we utilize this and are able to give them lots of variety.
Essential oils and dried herbs are excellent enrichment for them. We dilute them with some water and them spread them around the exhibits, mark their toys with it or smear it over boxes and egg cartons. They both love it! Wang Wang’s favourite is by far ground cinnamon powder and Fu Ni loves the relaxation blend of essential oils.
Containers are also great toys for our pandas…we give them big water drums…sometimes with food, sometimes full of water (to make it heavy) and sometimes just on its own. We use them all over the exhibits and dayrooms and this one is great for Wang Wang in his outside waterfall. They love batting them around! A company called Aussie Dog provides us with some hard wearing plastic toys…some food related, like our feeder ball and Wang Wangs favourite…. 3 balls with a large thong attached. The footage of him playing with it is great isn’t it! I put a few drops of essential oil on it and put it up his tree! He was playing with it for at least 40mins and then was so tired that he fell asleep on it! The footage of Fu Ni playing with the bungee toy just shows her personality so well…it really made me laugh! The way she looks at me when she is playing...just making sure she is getting the extra attention as well as the ability to play with the toy!
The bucket footage was really funny to watch it unfold. I squished a small amount of her panda cake along the inside of the bucket. Her curiosity eventually got the better of her and after over ½ hr of batting the bucket around the day room she stuck her head straight in it! She was licking the bucket for about 5 mins consistently and when she did eventually raise her head she had a big round circle around her face from the buckets rim! It was very cute!
Straw seems to be a favourite with them as well…..we have only used it once for now but once we are sure it is all safe we will start to use it more….in the day room as well Wang Wang went to mush when we used it in his Lock Aways! For such a big strong panda he certainly showed his softer side! I don’t think he stood up for around 30mins! He was rolling and sliding around the place. Hopefully I can get you all some footage of him with it the next time we use it so you can all have a laugh!
One thing I can say about the pandas is that they keep us on our toes all the time. It is great to see them interacting and having fun with all the toys we provide and makes our days totally worthwhile!
Till next time!
Simone
How sweet, this challenge !
Thank you for all you do for Wang Wang and Fu Ni, enrichement is so important - I am sure, they are saying you thank you, when they look at you,
Pandahugs,