Animal Enrichment Toys

Kita 2002

Animal Enrichment, especially Toys is a subject very dear to me. This post has been a long time coming and honestly by brain is so fried on all things Zoo amiss. I may even miss a few points that I want to make, but the points I do make will be poignant enough.

The Halloween season, makes me most think of Enrichment Toys. So this time of year is perfect to dedicate to this post. I have always loved the Zoo's Halloween event. When I was a Member but didn't visit weekly as I do now, I would always be there for this event. It was a day when not only did my love of animals and pumpkins collide, but the Animals who live at the Zoo always seem to have fun playing with their pumpkins and other Halloween themed "toys".

When I was grieving the loss of my kitty of twenty years, I emersed myself in all things Zoo to dilute the pain if even for a second. Once I started to learn the Animals names and history, I would sometimes spend hours on end just reading about them and trying to learn more. I read all the Joint Zoo Committee Meeting Minutes, all the sfgate.com articles, ect. It was through researching photos on Flickr that I learned that Member's Mornings (past-tense) usually highlighted an Animal Birthday. I had been missing this for years. The first one I went to was in October 2008 and it was for the Andean Bears Birthday. Both Wishbone and Annie were born in October so it was a combined celebration for the pair. Unfortunately just three months later as of January 2009, these celebrations would stop when Zoo Management changed the format from Monthly to Quarterly and by late summer had fired the long-time employee who loved the Animals and loved doing this for them.

By July 2009, I had started a blog on the Animal Residents (gooberssfzoofriends.blogspot.com)

where I started by posting a bio on each Resident. I was making a post on the quartet of Chimps and realized Cobby's Birthday was listed as that week. Lee and I decided we wanted to make him a card. I emailed the gal they had fired (who was still there at this time) and asked if there was any planned celebration for Cobby, especially since he would be turning 50! according to the listed date. She checked with Primates and got back to me a couple days later, that yes they would be doing something. We had our card placed out in front of the enclosure and it was really cool to see all the people excited and from seeing our card, the buzz was on, people were saying it was "Cobby's Birthday!" and kids were running around yelling it. People LOVE this kind of thing. The Animals LOVE this kind of thing! you can view photos of just how excited they were on the above mentioned blog. Unfortunately, that was the last Birthday celebrated for the Chimps as suspected at the time and confirmed when the girls April Birthdays and Cobby's next one rolled around unrecognized in 2010, Cobby only had that celebration because we inquired about it.

I made my own calendar of Animal Birthdays (viewable here: http://gooberssfzoofriends.shutterfly.com/calendar), so I could make sure to wish them on their special day. I think all the Animals should be celebrated daily, whether that's just by greeting them by name, talking nice to them as individuals, giving them treats, whatever it is. Animals the greatest gifts, and these Animals are the heart of the Zoo. Without them there would be no Zoo. As well as celebrated daily, each individual one should have a special day. To me that's their Birthday. Some of the Zoo Animals are rescues and the date listed as their Birthday is estimated or near the date they were rescued or came to the Zoo. Regardless of the circumstances the date is listed as, there is a date listed and that's the one to go by. Its their documented day. Regardless of whether a celebration can be done on that particular day, any day will do! As one Keeper told me, "The Animals don't know what day it is, all they care about is they got toys!"

By January of 2010 I had made many friends among Staff, mostly with Keepers who shared their love for the Animals with me. The Big Cat Keeper Barb was one of them. When mid-January rolled around, I realized with the holidays I hadn't checked the calendar and missed a couple Birthdays (I felt horrible) and that Tunya one of the male Lions Birthday was coming up on the 26th. Having missed female Amanzi's on the 4th and male Jahari's was on February 7th, I asked Barb if I could make some toys for them. She said yes and we decided to have a collective party on the 7th, Super Birthday Sunday!

That started a tradition and after male Tiger Tony's Birthday in March, my friend Lee and I started making Enrichment Toys every week for Big Cat Fun on Saturdays. You can read all about the fun on a blog I started for the Keepers and Vet Staff, along with us to document all the fun and the great Toys we were making for our Big Cat friends! Check out  thebigcatnip.blogspot.com

As I understand it, the Animals receive Enrichment daily, in a variety of ways. According to Barb, the type of Enrichment the Toys we were creating she called "high yield", which meant it created an excitement/energy level much like they would have in the wild. She felt that it was a necessary supplement to the other Enrichment they were receiving.

It was a priceless experience to get to create something that you then saw a Zoo friend enjoy. Bringing this fun to their lives once a week was a great thing. We loved it, the Keepers loved it, the Visitors loved it and most of all the Animals loved it.

Unfortunately all the fun came to a halt right before Halloween 2010. Even though we had been approved by the Head Vet, Dr Jackie, the Carnivore Curator Corrine MacDonald made it her primary agenda to put an end to it. She point blank told me, "They don't need this type of Enrichment" & "I have no interest in celebrating Birthdays". We had a brief negotiation that allowed for female Tiger Padang to get a 21st Birthday Party (tigerbirthday.blogspot.com ) and had a drama filled time getting the agreed upon Bear Birthday Party(bearbirthdays.blogspot.com) to even happen.

At the time, Curator MacDonald claimed that yet another formal Enrichment Program would be producing "toys" for the Animals on a regular basis. This Program was to utilize the Renew the Zoo volunteers for this purpose. Interesting as the Renew the Zoo usually helps with landscaping, painting and other needed grounds work. I'll also note that like the first attempt at an Enrichment Committee, both Lee and I were not only asked to join this program but to be leaders and teach the volunteers how to do what we were doing BUT we were not allowed to continue doing what we were doing in the same way. For many reasons we declined.

With the priority of the upcoming Halloween and Christmas events, Curator MacDonald said, "just give us a chance". As suspected aside from these events, the Animals never got any other "toys", at least not on a regular basis, which according to one Keeper they were promised.  There would be a painted box or few here and there, but they have had no regular Enrichment Toys for a year now. I will also add that the first "toys" that were made under the new program were for the Halloween event 2010. The "toys" that were provided to the Big Cat Keepers by the Operations/Renew the Zoo team, were boxes with huge staples and tape! All of the Toys we made were safe.

Now with 2011 Halloween behind us, I guess the next time the Animals will get "toys' will be for Christmas. It makes me sad as I can see where having Toys brought them so much joy. A captive animals day is pretty boring and at least for an hour or so that one day of week they had items that were especially designed for them (example Padang, a Tiger with special needs, got opened toys to accommodate her) to stimulate visually with color, and tactually with size and shape.

I will also note that Padang who never really liked Enrichment items, showed not only an interest in our Toys, but at age 20+ showed kittenish behavior and excitement when she saw them brought out!  As well, female Lioness Sukari who had been a cave dweller since arriving at the Zoo was finally coaxed out using our Toys, culminating in her full participation starting with her 8th brithday celebration!

I sincerely hope the Zoo gets it together enough one day to organize its volunteer staff in such a way they can successfully produce enough Enrichment Toys for all the Animals who would benefit from them to do so at least once a week.