On Saturday, October 2, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM the Houston Zoo is putting on our annual Enrichment Day. Kids and adults alike can learn while having fun – and being entertained. Animal enrichment is something we do each day to stimulate each animal and bring out behaviors they’d natually use in the wild. Here’s a great example:
Our Lion pride at the Houston Zoo receives bones once a week. The bones are part of the zoo’s practice of daily animal enrichment, and keep the lions teeth and gums healthy.
In this video Carnivore Keeper Kevin Hodge is tossing bones to our 3 female African lions and Jonathan, our male. In order to avoid monotony we deliver the bones in a different way each week.
The bones are enriching by themselves, but changing the delivery method is a type of enrichment as well. Some keepers like to toss the bones across the moat, as seen in this video. Some keepers like to hide the bones on exhibit, and some like to pile the bones up in a large pile to simulate an actual group feeding.
By tossing bones, we can stimulate natural behaviors like hunting, stalking, chasing, carrying, chewing, hording, burying, etc. If our animals exhibit those behaviors, then our enrichment is deemed a success.
If you would like to see more enrichment activities like this one, there will be many such demonstrations all over the zoo involving animals from every department! Please visit our web page for the schedule.
Plus there will be games and crafts all day, and information booths around the Reflection Pool from related organizations from Houston. So come on out this Saturday, October 2, to see the lions, learn to grab fish with a bill like a bird would and make enrichment items for your pets at home!
Written by Angie Pyle, Senior Carnivore Keeper and Trainer and Rochelle Joseph
