Pretoria - Animals at the Pretoria Zoo yesterday had their Christmas treats when their keepers ran the festive environmental enrichment programme.
Animals that benefited from the enrichment activity included the Komodo dragons, the Bengal tigers, the Cape penguins, and the Cape vultures, which were given several treats as species-specific Christmas presents.
Zookeepers explained that environmental enrichment refers to interactions aimed to enhance the level of physical and social stimulation in zoo animals.
It is beneficial both for animal’s behavioural and physiological needs, said South African National Biodiversity Institute spokesperson Nontsikelelo Mpulo.
Mpulo said the animals were fed on a regular interval basis, but this particular enrichment programme was meant to educate people who visited the zoo about how the animals fed.
“It’s a nice feel for families that visit the zoo, and it’s done around this time every year,” she said.
The zoo has three Bengal tigers, two of which are females – Tiyana and Toya – and one male named Zeus.
The tigers were let out of their cage to try to get them to open their presents.
The gift boxes were wrapped in red paper, and they contained meat, a treat the animals enjoyed.
“They are fed every two days,” said Mpulo.
One of the female tigers enjoyed a box opened by Zeus, who failed to see the meat falling out of the gift box.
Instead he took the box and vanished behind the trees.
When he realised what had fallen out of the box, he came back, roared and snatched the meat out of one the female’s paws.
He then proceeded to enjoy it under a tree.
Among the animals that had the joy of using their natural smell instinct were the Cape vultures, which were treated with meat and jelly as an enrichment.
There are 30 vultures at the zoo and they are fed twice in seven days.
The vultures used their natural smelling instinct, which led them to open the box and container to find their presents.
Among the animals said to be in need of protection are the world’s largest lizards, the Komodo dragons, which can grow up to 3.13 metres long and weigh up to 166kg.
Yesterday they too received their Christmas presents, from boxes beautifully decorated, with treats inside.
The zookeepers left a trail of rats that led the Komodos to their enrichment box, and they were given a watermelon with meat stuffed in it.
The zoo has two Komodo dragons, which stay in two separate spaces.
There are a limited number of Komodo dragons worldwide that are kept by zoos for breeding purposes just to ensure their survival, should they become extinct in the wild.
The Cape penguins were given lavender as an enrichment, a treat they normally take to their holes to enjoy.
Pretoria News