‘Santa’ feeding a giraffe at the National Zoo and Aquarium. Photo: James Coleman.
All dingoes want for Christmas, it turns out, is a canvas stocking full of rhino poo.
The National Zoo and Aquarium has launched its ’12 Days of Enrichment’ program in the lead up to Christmas, where the public will be able to watch as different animals receive – and attempt to unwrap – their own special presents each day.
Santa (okay, actually a zookeeper sweating inside a fluffy red suit and beard) will even be there to dish them out.
The rhino receives a cardboard wreath to tear apart; the cheetahs, cardboard boxes containing dead rabbits; the giraffes, larger cardboard boxes containing their favourite foods; and yes, in the case of the dingoes, the enrichment includes rhino poo (just to sniff, okay).
“It’s very weird to say, but yes – poo in a stocking is great for our zoo animals,” zookeeper Serena Robbie says.
Enrichment is a daily occurrence for the animals on top of their regular feedings, even if it only comes wrapped in Christmas trappings once a year.
“Enrichment not only gets them active physically and mentally, but it also encourages them to use the natural behaviours they would out in the wild,” Serena says.
“We target certain species with enrichment focused on scent or visual/audio or foraging. So for the giraffe, we target food because they really enjoy their food, and for the cheetah, we target the visual side of things because eyesight is their best sense, and dingoes – well, they’re just dogs – and they like finding things and destroying things.”
Other times, the sun bears will be given food encased in a rotting log they then have to dig through, or the zookeepers will spray the cheetah enclosure with perfume so “the cheetahs then get to go around and scent-mark their enclosure to make it smell like them again”.
“Enrichment is basically making sure that our animals have fun things to do – new things to experience – to keep their minds active and to keep them happy,” enrichment officer Sarah Howarth adds.
“We do enrichment all the time, every day, but around holidays we can make it a bit more festive, a bit more colourful, just to give them something a bit different, and it looks awfully cute as well.”
Throughout the year, visitors also have the option to join a private tour of the zoo and “go behind the scenes” to help zookeepers prepare the enrichments, according to tourism manager Chara Reynolds.
“It’s one of the most underrated tours we have here,” Chara says.
For those doing the maths and realising Christmas is more than 12 days away, 19 December is the day of the zoo’s Christmas concert, ‘Santa’s Safari Extravaganza – A Festive Night to Remember’ and the final day of festive enrichment.
“We’ve got food trucks and vendors, we’re going to do a reptile show, and highlighting what we’re doing for the animals all the way through as well,” Chara adds.
Visit the National Zoo and Aquarium website for more information on the Enrichment Tour or Santa’s Safari Extravaganza.
Original Article published by James Coleman on Riotact.
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