Taking the Scenic Route

Animals in captivity get fed every day. They get enough to keep them healthy, but not so much they become overweight. They’re lazy, just hanging out until the keepers show up, whereas in the wild, they would have to hunt and forage.

So to keep them stimulated, sometimes their food is ingeniously packaged, or hidden in their enclosure, and they have to work to get at it. It's called 'enrichment'.

I joined the enrichment teams on a couple of occasions to see what happens. Once with the Binturong – a cute sort of cat-cum-bear – and once with the Asian Black Bears. The Binturong got a mix of seeds, fruits and veggies plus a little bit of dried dog food. This was packed inside an empty plastic bottle, stoppered with leaves. They went wild for it! Sniffing around the enclosure until each of them had found something, then tearing into the bottle and devouring the contents. The empty bottle would be retrieved later. It was quite obvious they loved their little treat.

The Bears, meanwhile, have to work a little harder. They’re not really carnivores, so the diet for them is leaves, fruits and veggies. For their enrichment, this is stuffed inside old bicycle tyres, or packed into a hollow ball. Hollow lengths of bamboo are also filled with leaves and honey water. All this is thrown into the enclosure, leaving them to run and find it …. before one of the other bears gets there. This lucky fella has a bamboo stick packed with goodies.

Naturally preparing the enrichment is hard work and takes time. Fortunately, the sanctuary is rarely short of volunteers to undertake these tasks. And having seen the animals’ reactions, I totally understand why they choose to work for free.