This enhances the scientists' understanding of a species and enables them to design more fulfilling environments.
Creative Feeding
The zookeepers' challenge is to "enrich" the environments of all the zoo's residents, not just the cute furry ones.
Even with animals like the poison dart frogs from South America, it is important to keep life interesting. Creative feeding, which encourages natural foraging behavior, is one solution.
Hiding a picnic of crickets inside a coconut which had three holes drilled in it provided a culinary challenge for the amphibians. An army of colorful frogs emerged from the foliage to investigate the chirping coconut with the "alpha" frog leading the charge, just as it would in the wild.
To spice up life for a resident octopus, its prey was hidden in a transparent plastic tube with holes drilled for its probing tentacles. The task of retrieving the prey proved too simple for the octopus, so it was given a jar of fish with a screw-cap lid.
"This animal had never experienced a jar before, let alone one with a screw cap, and within two minutes the octopus had unscrewed the lid," said Reiss, who is also director of the Marine Mammal Research and Conservation Program at WCS's New York Aquarium. Curiously the lid became a coveted item and the octopus hid it from its keepers.
Birds of prey were given euthanized, frozen rats that had been wrapped tightly in grass, paper, and string. "Raptors naturally like to catch and rip their prey apart—giving the birds wrapped foods gives them the opportunity to practice this behavior," said Reiss.
Making Medical Exams Fun
In addition to providing objects and hiding food, some of the enrichment activities also help the keepers care for the animals.
"We trained the monkeys to stand on scales, climb into crates, and to deal with physical exams," said Gina Savastano, the senior keeper at the Bronx Zoo's Monkey House. They have trained the small monkeys, mostly tamarinds, marmosets, and capuchins, to show their hands, feet, stomach, tail, and back at the request of their examiner.
"They love it, they love interacting with us," said Savastano. "Sometimes they wait at the door when they see we are about to enter the enclosure. A lot of times they are so overeager that six might stand on the scale at once. We had to train them to stand at color-coded stations while waiting their turn."
The monkeys also enjoy water fights using juice bottles, which they fill with water and then throw on their peers. Mirrors also provide intrigue as mystified monkeys try to find the monkey inside of the mirror.
Although the zoo enclosures—with their props, scents, and sounds—will never match the variety of stimuli of the animals' home turf, researchers like Reiss anticipate that improving the quality of the life of animals in zoos and aquariums may provide the animals with a bit of the pleasure that they give to zoo-goers.
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