Of course, we’re used to this type of weather, living in southwest Missouri. However, some animals living at the Dickerson Park Zoo can’t tolerate these frigid temperatures like native Missouri animals. In these frosty conditions, the zoo’s animals spend their time inside to ride out the winter in warmth and comfort.
In these long winter months it is important that the keepers at Dickerson Park Zoo provide enrichment for each animal they take care off. Enrichment is basically an attempt to improve the quality of an animal’s life. This is accomplished by offering stimulants to the animal which draw out species-appropriate behaviors. Enrichment items are usually geared towards the five senses: hearing, taste, touch, sight and smell and vary from species to species.
In the South America portion of Dickerson Park Zoo, the capuchin monkeys are given enrichment items multiple times per day. These items provoke such behaviors as foraging for food, manipulating objects and moving throughout the environment.
On one particularly snowy day, the capuchins were given “snowmen” decorated with food items from their diet with additional food items hidden inside. They really enjoyed this enrichment because it provided them with many sense-altering stimulants. The cold, wet snow provided the capuchins with an interesting medium in which to forage. Three snowmen were built to discourage food aggression among the capuchins. The capuchins promptly smashed and destroyed the snowmen in the exciting hunt for food.
Many of the exotic parrots and macaws at the zoo also spend some of the winter indoors. In the wild, parrots and macaws spend much of their time preening their feathers and chewing objects to condition their beaks. To simulate these natural behaviors, the parrots and macaws at Dickerson Park Zoo are given bird toys that encourage such behaviors. The toys in the pictures were constructed out of rope, colored wooded blocks, recycled paper cups and pages torn from an old phone book. The birds took great interest in these toys, shredding the paper into little bits (simulating preening) and chewing the wood to condition their beaks.
Snowmen and bird toys are just a few examples of enrichment items given to zoo animals. Keep updated with FOZBlog to hear more about other enrichment provided to other animals at the zoo!
written by Jamie Schmitt, Zookeeper
