Boredom rare for animals at Riverbanks

By Gina Vasselli
Edited by Jennifer Silverman
Date Posted: April 8, 2009

With balloons, party hats and pinatas in mind, volunteers gather to plan a party. "We'll have to make something purple for Michael," says one volunteer.

Michael, the 380-pound gorilla.

When volunteers at the Riverbanks Zoo plan activities, like "Party for the Planet" on April 25 or the recent Valentine's Day event, the public is invited but it's all for the animals.

Each day zookeepers rearrange rocks and branches, and put new things in the exhibits to give the animals a stimulating environment.

In zoo-speak it's called "enrichment."

Public activities occur every few months to raise awareness and give the animals something really different.

Enrichment is designed to bring out the animals' natural behaviors, said Sue Pfaff, the assistant curator of mammals.

When the zookeepers arrive around 8 a.m., the first thing they do is check on the animals. The second is figure out a creative way to give them food.

"If a gorilla is supposed to be searching for food in the wild for six hours a day, that's our goal," Pfaff said.

Zookeepers, for instance, might throw food several times a day to mimic foraging, she said. The zoo staff also works hard to keep animals from just pacing inside their enclosures and generally goes beyond what the Association of Zoos and Aquariums requires, Pfaff said.

But then there are times like when zookeepers made about 20 gallons of sugar-free Jell-o for the elephants to play with and eat.

"They were interested in it, but when it went up into their trunk... Yuck," Pfaff said. "It gave them the heebie jeebies."

But enrichment is not just trial and error. Zoos exchange ideas, which is how Riverbanks discovered that some animals, like Black-footed Cats, like the fruity and woody smell of "With Love" Hilary Duff perfume.

Pfaff said the smell of the perfume stimulates the animals, making them more active. She said the zookeepers will spray the perfume on a piece of cardboard, which the cats will rub against to pick up the scent better.

She said sometimes something as simple as giving lions a cardboard box with food inside can give visitors a glimpse at what the lions are like in the wild.

"They're carrying it around and they're doing the jugular hold, and you're just like, Wow, if you were in Africa that's what you would see a lion do," she said.

About six women meet twice a week in a small, grey office in a Riverbanks warehouse to arrange the public face of zoo enrichment.

Before the volunteers were organized in October 2007 Pfaff and the zookeepers put together the activities, but didn't have much time for it.

Now, Libba Ulery and Nancy Brown lead the volunteers, designing and planning themed days.
 
Libba Ulery, now the group leader, says the first thing considered is the animals' safety.

Everything "has to be where we can put it in our mouth and eat it," since the animals will likely do just that, Ulery said. This means no staples, no tape, no cardboard with paint or writing on it, and only non-toxic glue.

And there isn't much of a budget to work with.

Zoo spokeswoman, Lindsay Burke, said the volunteers don't have a set budget, but that the zoo's cell phone-recycling program brings in some money that goes directly to the volunteers. Everything else comes from donations and out of pocket.

And the volunteers can't make the same thing for every species. The papier-mâché balloons they were making in late February would quickly get soggy with the sea lions but would be perfect for the baboons.

But, despite the restrictions, enrichment days are very popular, Burke said.

When Jan Mathias arrived for the Valentine's Day event, she said that despite the rainy, cold weather it looked like a summer day at the zoo.

"The whole parking lot was full to way down the other end," Mathias said.

Back at the warehouse, half-finished papier-mache balls hang outside the office door to dry like laundry. The women chat, drink coffee, eat cake and listen to music while working. The balls will need about two more layers of papier-mache and a few coats of paint before they get stuffed with grass and sugar free candy for the animals, which will take at least another month.
But Ulery is determined to make enrichment popular and well known.

"It's really neat when you can say to a little child that's 5 years-old, ‘Do you know what enrichment is?' and they know," she said.