At the end of January of this year we had several children from MD Anderson Cancer Center visit the Houston Zoo. They brought along family members and some of their care staff to provide enrichment for our white rhinos and chimpanzees.
What is enrichment again? Oh yeah, it’s that fun stuff you give to your animals…
Well, yes. On a more technical note it is anything that keepers provide to their animals to promote natural behaviors they would exhibit in the wild. This not only keeps them physically active, but mentally and emotionally stimulated as well.
The kids from MD Anderson were gracious enough to make HUGE hearts for our rhinos and chimps that the keepers happily stuffed with goodies. For our chimpanzees the hearts were stuffed with fruit and the rhinos had alfalfa in theirs.
At the chimp exhibit the kids watched on as their nicely decorated hearts were thrown over the edge for the chimps to explore. At first our troop of chimps were confused…they didn’t know what this foreign object was and they were unsure as to who would dive in first. Not too long after the chimps had discovered there were tasty treats inside the hearts were ripped open! Willie, our youngest chimp, proceeded to tear the enrichment into pieces even after all of the fruit had been removed.
As for our rhinos, the heart was stuck in their pile of alfalfa, and then they were let out into their yard. They weren’t extremely interested at first but Annie, one of our female rhinos, discovered the heart was stuffed with alfalfa! She proceeded to get her horn stuck inside the heart as she looked for food (I think that may be a sign of shear delight). Not to worry, she quickly got her horn removed and proceeded to chow down on her newly discovered meal.
Our rhinos exploring the heart!
After all was said and done, not only were our animals happy, but the kids enjoyed themselves as well. It’s not every day that children get to make enrichment for a wild animal and observe them exploring it. It’s even more important to have these opportunities for kids who spend a lot of their day inside hospital walls!
Outside of this enrichment opportunity, the Education Department also devotes one week in the fall called “Zoo Week” to the kids at MD Anderson. Staff will go over every day throughout the week to share information about our animals, show biofacts to the kids and create art projects with them.
This partnership is a fulfilling one to say the least, and we hope to maintain it for years to come.
One of our rhinos getting its horn stuck inside the enrichment!
