Behavioral Enrichment

Behavioral Enrichment, or B.E. for short, is such a hugely important part of animal care. I cannot stress this enough. Good BE replicates foraging or hunting techniques used in the wild, exercises the animal's mind and body, and helps to alleviate boredom.

One way of incorporating BE into an animal's life is through its food. I have had to do a lot of that this week with Nyani, the Hamadryas baboon I'm taking care of. For example, take a look at her mid-day meal!

The whole spread!

First, I cut up her fruits and veggies into tiny pieces. This gives her more to look for and hopefully it will take her longer to get through her meal. I wrapped each piece in a crumpled strip of newspaper, stuffed a few into a toilet paper roll, and wrapped it all up in newspaper like so.

I continued to wrap the pieces of fruits and veggies in paper balls and filled up a small box. The yummy banana slices she loves were wrapped up and put all the way at the bottom.

Nyani also gets two feet of "browse" every week as part of her food-BE. Other ways to incorporate BE directly into a diet is to add spices, whole fruit, frozen juice, pigeon wings, oatmeal, peanut butter, or a myriad of other tasty treats to mix things up a bit. This way the animals aren't eating the same meal day after day. Today I gave her two feet of trumpet vine to enjoy.

I still had a few little pieces left over after that, so I decided to throw them into her enclosure so she had to forage through the paper already on the ground to find them. Since I usually cut up her leafy greens, I left the romaine whole today and stuck it through the bars up high so she could go climb for it. 

This morning, I took her chow and soaked it in water until it turned to mush. Then I mashed it up with avocado oil, a supplement called Missing Link, oatmeal, cinnamon, all her fruit, and some finely chopped carrots. I spread it in her romaine leaf, wrapped it up like a burrito, and tied it up with a paper towel rope. She LOVED it. She completely ignored all the other food I was putting around her enclosure, eager eyes on the exciting load of goodness I still had in my hands. 

Enrichment is particularly important for primates, many of whom can display neurotic boredom behaviors if not properly mentally stimulated. But this doesn't mean it can be ignored for other species! One of my favorite animals to watch receive her enrichment is Kiara, the lion. Her new trainer likes to hang huge boxes from the roof of the arena with a meatball or two inside, and she leaps in the air snarling to get them down. Impressive for a twelve year old big cat! Every species of animal can benefit from enrichment, even if they must be taught how to use it. I even use BE with my rats at home, switching up their food once in a while and hiding it in newspaper balls just like Nyani's. 

This is one of my favorite parts of animal care. I love being creative and thinking up fun new ways to get the animals moving, thinking, and playing. It's a super rewarding feeling when you come up with a successful idea and watch the animal react. Happy animals means happy Christy!

I highly suggest that whether you have a cat, dog, bird, or guinea pig, you try and implement some new and exciting BE for them this week! If you need ideas, leave a comment!

Love and bellyrubs,

Christy

Not-So-Gentle Reminders

I took Cain out today and he bit me really badly. He came over to me when I went inside his enclosure to get him, love danced at my hand for a couple minutes, and let me give him scratches, but when I finally got him to step up he started biting hard and yelling "NO!!" 

When Cain starts biting, he hangs on for dear life. It's not a simple matter of asking him to step down, sometimes you have to fling him away because otherwise he will latch onto your hand with his feet and attack every inch of skin he can. I finally managed to get him off but not before he had grabbed a tendon in my hand and bit down, pulled, and twisted. I walked away and hid behind a bush while he made his "MOM COME BACK" upset call at me. Ten seconds later I went back in, asked him to step up, and took him out to play with no more issues. This is just the way Cain is. Sometimes he has bouts of aggression that appear to come out of nowhere. I don't take it personally, because it's not personal, but it is a harsh reminder that I'm not working with pets anymore. These are wild animals that do wild animal things. It was hard to use my hand for a few hours after our session and it still feels sore and bruised deep inside. He really got at something in there. But my motor skills are not impaired enough to get in the way of performing the tasks I need to perform, and at least he didn't send me to the hospital like the new coati did to one of his trainers! 

Bites are a part of life here. It sucks when it happens, especially when it comes from an animal you love. But they are a necessary reminder to be careful and treat these animals with the caution they deserve. Just because my ocelot looks like a pretty kitty doesn't mean he won't sink his teeth into me if given the chance. And let me tell you, I would rather have a bite from Cain than one from Mowgli. I'll definitely be a little more wary of the "business end" of all my animals now. 

     

Mr. Mowgli! 

James, my fluffy donkey!

Look at that face. Irresistible. 

And of course, Cain. Looking deceptively innocent.


No pics of Michelley-Monkey yet. She is difficult to photograph.

In other news today, I got to have a nice grooming session with the coati I'm taking care of, giving her lots of scratches. And a capuchin pulled my hair and scratched my forehead. 

Capuchins are dicks. 

Fantastic News!!!

Hello faithful readers!

Here it is, finally, the moment we all have been waiting for (or at least, the moment I have been eagerly awaiting with bated breath for months!)

ANIMAL ASSIGNMENTS HAVE ARRIVED!!! I will be training.... (drumroll please)

JAMES THE DONKEY

MICHELLE THE CAPUCHIN

CAIN, MY BEAUTIFUL AND CRAZY CHATTERING LORY

and MOWGLI THE OCELOT!

Pictures to come soon, but I don't have a whole lot of good ones. I'm working on it!

I am so incredibly excited to be training all of my first choice animals. It feels so good to finally be given a real, tangible reward for working so hard last semester.  I am facing a whole heck of a lot of hard work this semester with turnovers. I have to write at least one paper for each animal (two for Cain), do several hours of observations, learn SO much about diets and behaviors and training, implement new behavioral enrichment plans (and observe some more), and for the animals that appear in shows, bring them onstage for staff to prove my proficiency. On top of that, the extras list has been posted and we now have our chance to ask for animals that have not been assigned yet. My first choice is NADIA, our kinkajou. She has been largely neglected in past years because she is nocturnal and hard to work with, but she should be able to come out and be in shows! I am SO passionate about all these big plans I have for my animals and the upcoming semester/year. I am just bursting with excitement. My goal is to have all my turnover papers done by the end of this week, so hopefully I can stick to that goal. This coming week is Caretaking Week while our second years are in San Diego, so even though I'll have to devote a lot of time to caring for Nyani the Hamadryas baboon, Scout the coati, and of course Cain, next week is also flex week so we don't have any classes to worry about. I have plans to use that extra time productively!


I will update everyone as soon as all of my final extra assignments are made, hopefully with pictures this time. For now, I just want to express how unbelievably out of my mind happy and ecstatic I am. There was a moment of doubt when I wondered if I should have stuck with my original plan of asking for Scooter. She is the easier choice and would in some ways be more fun. She is easier to get out on walks and in some ways easier to train. However, I have to remind myself that I'm not just here to have fun and play with animals. I am here to challenge myself, to push myself, to learn. I picked four animals that are going to test me, challenge me, and force me to learn and grow. And I think that's ultimately the right choice for me. As fun as this program is, I'm not just here to have fun. I want to come out of these two years not only having had some amazing and life changing fun times, but also knowing that I pushed myself, challenged myself, learned a lot, and ultimately became a better person for it.

I'll leave it at that.


I am one happy girl.


Love and bellyrubs,

Christy

STAY TUNED!

The first years have been called to a meeting on Tuesday morning, and it has been officially confirmed by staff that the purpose of this meeting is to discuss animal assignments!!

Hooray hooray!! I can't wait!!