Animal Enrichment

All wild animals search for and gather food—this process is called foraging. The way animals forage depends on their species, their environment, and their natural diet. At the Zoo, foraging enrichment might include hiding mealworms in wood shavings for birds to find, or scattering sunflower seeds around the Western lowland gorilla exhibit. Devices like hay feeders, puzzle feeders, and boomer balls encourage animals to use their natural problem-solving abilities to find food. 

Zookeepers regularly modify habitat areas in ways that encourage animals to explore and investigate their surroundings. This might involve adding perches, vines, new bedding, or swapping in different types of ground material. These changes give animals more choices and more control over their environment.  

Helping animals exercise their minds is as important as giving them space to run, jump and climb. Training sessions and research projects are two types of cognitive enrichment that allow animals to problem-solve, learn and try new activities. Past research has included studies on orangutan memory, how lizards see color, and how giant pandas forage.

 Training often lets animals participate in their own medical care, like learning to step onto a scale. 

Many animals have powerful senses. They might use their sense of smell to hunt, or their sharp hearing to listen for predators. At the Zoo, keepers introduce new sensory objects to stimulate those senses— playing audio recordings, adding smells using things like sprays or spices, introducing scratching posts or even hanging up mirrors!  

In the wild, many animals use tools to achieve specific goals, like getting food, building nests, or cracking nuts. At the Zoo, keepers encourage tool use in the apes by providing sticks and branches and presenting food in devices like metal treat tubes. For example, the tubes might be filled with applesauce, and the only way for the apes to get it is by using sticks to retrieve the treat.