If you go to the Knoxville
Zoo, you might well see a tiger over a barrel. But don't worry--that tiger isn't in
trouble. And the baby rhino rolling a bowling ball is not trying
out for "America's Funniest Home Videos." If you go to the Knoxville
Zoo, you might well see a tiger over a barrel. But don't worry--that tiger isn't in
trouble. And the baby rhino rolling a bowling ball is not trying
out for "America's Funniest Home Videos."
No, these animals are doing enrichment activities.
Kim Widner, a University of Tennessee, Knoxville zoology student and a conservation research assistant for the Knoxville Zoo, is in charge of animal enrichment. She describes enrichment as "anything that makes animals more active or makes them behave as they would in the wild." It is important for zoo animals, Widner says, because it keeps them from getting bored.
Enrichment can be as simple as giving animals a strange food or something to play with, Widner says. However, she has to keep safety in mind. For example, any item an animal can take apart must be safe to eat.
If you look around the zoo, you might see bears going after honey and raisins in a plastic pipe and fish inside an ice block, rhinoceroses pushing around bowling balls and barrels, and hippos splashing a log around in water. The hippos are also given whole watermelons, which they chomp open with their powerful jaws. Elephants, zebras, and giraffes munch on browse (vegetation) made of honeysuckle vines and willow branches. The browse adds variety to their regular diet of hay and grain.
Gorillas, chimpanzees, and baboons can take part in more challenging activities, Widner says. They may get feeding tubes-either paper towel cores or sections of bamboo-with popcorn, raisins, cereal, and peanut butter hidden inside. The gorillas and chimpanzees sometimes have their food hidden inside a cardboard box. An empty box can also provide entertainment. One playful chimp will run in and out of a large box and roll around inside until she destroys the box, Widner says.
Widner keeps a log and photos of the animals doing enrichment activities. And she has more plans up her sleeve, like filling an empty pool with sand in the baboon exhibit. The sand would be like the baboons' natural desert environment. It would give them something to play in as well as a place to hide food so they can forage (hunt for their food).
Widner says the enrichment program is good for everyone.
"The keepers love it. The animals love it, and the public especially loves it. They get to see the animals at one of their more active times."