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Articles
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| Gift requests from the animals at the National Zoo |
VOICE writes, "
By LINDA LOMBARDI
Current Correspondent
They've made a list, checked it twice -- but even Santa might be mystified by some of the gift requests from the animals at the National Zoo. What would a bird do with a feather duster -- or an octopus with a maze?
And you might guess wrong about the purpose of some of the others, too, such as the wading pools requested for the otters: No, they're not for swimming.
Many of the items on the list (at fonz.org/givingtree.htm) are to be used in the Zoo's program for what's called enrichment. According to curator Heidi Hellmuth, the purpose of enrichment is to keep animals well -- both mentally and physically -- by letting them use their natural behaviors.
Of course, there are no wading pools in the wild. Nor are there Kong dog toys or plastic balls. But because stores don't typically sell items made especially for Zoo animals, the staff has to get creative, finding ways to use available objects to elicit natural activities.
"For animals that get their food in the wild by licking, you can put peanut butter or honey inside a Kong," said Hellmuth, referring to the hollow dog toys. "And it bounces in funny ways, so an animal can stalk it.""
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The staff sometimes fills the otters' wading pools with water, but not for swimming -- treats are floated or sunk in them. Workers can also fill them with a dry substrate like mulch and hide food in them for animals that naturally dig for their meals.
While some store-bought toys can be adapted for Zoo use, it's not quite the same as using them for your pets. "Most of the animals have stronger jaws and more destructive capabilities," said Hellmuth, whose work focuses on enrichment and training.
And if your dog has ever been reluctant to relinquish a toy, you can imagine the other potential problem: "If the tiger starts chewing up the ball, you can't just go in with the tiger and take it back," said Hellmuth.
This means that only certain animals can use pet toys, and the Zoo has procedures to evaluate what's safe to use. So if you want to donate, you need to stick to the specific items on the wish list.
Of course, you might wonder why Zoo animals would need toys at all. Monkeys, cats, canines -- we can all understand that they need to keep their minds and bodies active. But octopuses? You probably think "slimy," or maybe even "delicious grilled." But how about smart?
Give an octopus a jar with a piece of food inside it, and it will quickly learn to twist the lid off. Not only that, it will get better at it each time, as the Zoo staff at the invertebrate exhibit has seen with the giant Pacific octopus.
"The time it takes to open the jar and get the food out significantly decreases," said Alan Peters, curator of invertebrates, "and it can extrapolate the behavior to different containers."
An octopus also learns its food comes from the keepers. "It sees and reacts to us," said Peters. The octopus will come up to the surface of the water when a keeper opens the tank -- unlike most other invertebrates, which react only when they smell the food in the water.
The maze toys that the staff builds out of polyvinyl chloride pipe allow the octopus to search for food much the way it would in the wild, where there are few jars with lids but many crevices in which crabs and other prey can hide. The octopus must feel around inside the twists and turns and the dead ends to find the food hidden in the maze.
The staff also gives the octopus other objects to investigate, which it will feel with the suckers that line its arms, which contain sensory cells. This way it can tell, as Peters said, "Is it edible? Is it not? Should I be afraid of it?" And an octopus interacts with objects in unusual ways, because it can modify both the color and texture of its skin, something you won't see a mammal doing no matter what you give it to play with.
"We use things like rubber rings that have spikes on them, combs -- things that have a lot of texture, because they not only feel and touch it, but we see some evidence that they imitate the color and texture of the object that they're holding," said Peters.
The animal's interaction with the enrichment objects also enhances the Zoo visitor's experience. It's more interesting than watching the octopus just hanging out, which is how it otherwise spends its time. But again, the main point is that it gets to make use of its natural behaviors.
"In the wild, the animals are either doing one of two things -- they're sitting in their den or they're exploring. Since it's in our tank and not drifting through the oceans, we bring things to it to explore," said Peters.
Some of the gifts are used for things other than enrichment. The feather dusters at the Bird House, for instance, are not for cleaning; they actually help hand-rear chicks in the Zoo's kori bustard breeding program.
The kori bustard is a large African bird whose numbers are declining in the wild, so captive breeding is important to its survival as a species. According to Sara Hallager, biologist at the Bird House, Washington's is "one of the few zoos that consistently breeds koris."
Hallager should know. She's coordinator of the Species Survival Plan for the kori bustard, a cooperative program among zoos, and she's also keeper of the international studbook, which means, as she said, "We get to say who breeds with who."
Part of the Zoo's commitment to the kori bustard program involves hand-rearing all the chicks. "The babies are pretty tiny when born, and predators can get into the enclosure and carry them off," Hallager said. "This way it's in a nice, warm safe environment."
This is where the feather dusters come in. "They kind of act like mom. We hang them from a string, and the birds get under and snuggle and they feel safe."
Although hand-rearing can be problematic with some species, this isn't true of koris. "They go on to breed with no problems," Hallager said. What's more, she said, it has a good effect on their adult behavior. "Over the years we've found that hand-reared koris are really good adults. Hand-rearing makes for a much calmer bird."
Their adult disposition is important because the chicks are ultimately going to be shipped to other zoos to initiate additional breeding programs. "They're not going back to the wild, so they might as well be completely comfortable in a captive environment," said Hallager.
The mirrors that the Bird House has requested are also used in the kori-breeding program, as enrichment for chicks, especially those that are alone. Koris sometimes lay one egg at a time, and it's not safe to combine chicks of different ages, since the older chicks may hurt the younger ones.
Some animals seem to ignore mirrors, but not the kori chicks. "They do purposely go over there and look in the mirror. They'll peck at it. You can't imagine what's going through their head, but we like to think it makes them think that they're not alone," said Hallager.
Whatever they are thinking, the birds definitely seem to get something out of having the mirror. "Even if we have two kori chicks," she said, "if we give them a mirror, they're over there all the time. They really enjoy what they're looking at."
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Posted on Dec 13, 2007 03:53am.
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