The Official Houston Zoo Blog

Everyday Enrichment: Making Life More Interesting for our Avian Residents – Part VI 

On a daily basis, our keepers strive to provide the wide variety of scenarios that a natural environment would provide our animals. We can provide a variety of options for our animals to work to obtain their food, provide different options for housing or even just give them new stimuli to investigate and explore. However, sometimes the best attempts of an animal keeper are still no match for the variety provided by the natural world.

These are our Red-Crowned Cranes (Grus japonensis) taking the time to “dance.” These elaborate courtship displays are crucial to the development of pair bonding; these behaviors are so ingrained into the development of the birds that chicks will often begin dancing while they are still in the nest. There are few behaviors in the zoo that are as awe-inspiring as the displays of these birds, which can last for extended periods of time. Naturally, many guests are not satisfied with merely seeing video footage of this behavior and ask keepers when would be the best time to see this beautiful spectacle in person. The short answer is this: these birds like it cold. 

These birds would naturally occur in a range that includes countries such as Russia, China and Japan. These birds are used to fairly cold temperature, and here at the zoo a day that starts off particularly cold is a pretty good indication that our Red-Crowned Cranes will be dancing. Birds are wondrous masters of recognizing the natural cues of the world to understand when is the ideal time to attempt to raise offspring; if Red-Crowned Cranes begin their pair-bonding rituals at the end of winter, they will be able to raise their chicks with the abundance of food that is associated with spring. Not only are birds able to take temperature clues, but rainfall and periods of daylight are also used to gauge the time of year. 

Obviously, it is far simpler to take advantage of these natural occurring instances than to attempt to replicate them through artificial means. The overall goal of enrichment is to encourage responses that would also be seen in the wild due to natural stimuli: sometimes it is best to just let the natural stimuli do the work of providing variety for our animals. It is for this reason that we encourage guests to take advantage of a wide variety of opportunities throughout the year to visit our extensive animal collection.

Like this blog? Check out Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV and Part V!

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