Enrich your Life!

At the zoo an enrichment is something given to the animals to "enrich" their lives.  That is, it engages their mind and body.  It can be food, a treat, a puzzle, a scent, or something different placed in their exhibit or even just a changing of perches or structures in their exhibit.  Keepers must be very creative to constantly think of new enrichments for each animal that are also safe for the animals and the keepers.  Some examples of enrichments are cardboard boxes, toilet paper rolls, puzzle food finders, plastic containers, old tires, wood and rope structures, cat nip, perfumes, body sprays, spices and food treats. 

Behavioral enrichment is training of the animals to bring out natural behaviors of each species.  Behavioral enrichment training is very important to be able to monitor the health of the animals everyday with very little anxiety to the animals and keeper.  For example, the keepers train the California sea lions everyday to be able to check over their overall body and teeth health by asking them to perform certain behaviors.  While training they are able to apply a daily medicine to our older male's eyes that helps with cataracts.  Without this training it would be impossible to apply the medicine to a 500 pound sea lion.  The training is done with positive reinforcement.  Basically, they get a treat if they do the behavior that was asked of them. 

This past weekend it was the female orangutan Ibu and the Malayan sun bear Heliana's birthdays.  They were treated to a decorated festive exhibit, cake of their liking and lots of enrichment presents to open.  I was only able to catch Heliana's birthday celebration.  She was excited and curious about her presents and exhibit and did not know where to begin.  Although, her nose led her to what she wanted first, some fresh watermelon! 

 The keepers setting up Heliana's exhibit for her birthday party!

 Heliana begins opening all her presents.

A cake made for a sun bear = jello and fresh fruit.  She picked out the fresh fruit first!

Enrich your own life. 
We as humans need some enrichment as well.  Yummy foods, puzzles to make us think, and exercise all increase our quality of life.  For me, enrichments need to be constantly changing.  I would be a tough zoo animal as I would get bored with items very quickly and my keepers would have to constantly be thinking of new ways to keep me happy.  For today my enrichments will be home made cinnamon rolls (trying out a new recipe), some exercise by riding my bike to the store, reading a book, and studying spanish. 

My other enrichments, the animals at the zoo and in particular, these 3 crazy ladies below.  In November they will turn 4 and are still young and full of energy.  They stalk visitors and sometimes try to pounce on visitors through the glass.  So playful and happy.  The other day I was rolling a cart by their exhibit and it was like a kid seeing one of their favorite toys just out of their reach. 

Silly silly ladies.  Take some time each and every day to enrich your life and make you smile.  These girls do, and they even do it in 100 degree heat. 


Enrich!

The first sleepover.

Things are moving right along at the zoo.  I scheduled some Zoo Adventure Programs in August and now it is almost September!  I had my first Behind the Scenes Tour, Roar and Snore Sleepover and Career Day for 60 high school kids. 

The sleepover night was filled with animal encounters, enrichment making, nocturnal tour, radio telemetry, camera trapping and so much more!  The evening ended with a campfire in which all the sleepover guests were able to roast marshmallows!  I used fuel briquettes made at the zoo for the campfire.  Fuel briquettes are easily made and used as a low cost, locally made fuel for cooking or heating. Organic waste such as leaves, sticks, paper and weeds can be made into fuel briquettes.  The basic recipe is mix the waste up with water and a binding agent, use a briquette press to get as much water out as possible and then let the rest dry.  The fuel briquettes burned just as they are supposed to, like a coal briquette.  Although, for a campfire where you want light and flame they were not quite adequate.  Luckily I had plenty of small sticks and twigs to supplement the fire.  Fuel briquette technology is used in third world countries to offer a sustainable, local and cheap way to create fuel.  To read more on fuel briquettes, check out this file! Next step for the campfire is starting it with the bow drill or flint and steel instead of a lame lighter!

 Participants of the sleepover roasting marshmallows at the campfire!

My favorite part was the nocturnal room in the Asia pavilion.  The Slow Loris was so curious at night he came out of his home right up to the window to check out the humans.  Their big eyes are adapted for nocturnal living but really just make them incredibly cute!  Slow Loris' are primates in the same sub order as lemurs. 

Slow Loris; A picture taken by Paul Dumond of the El Paso Zoo.

Slow Loris' are also declining in the wild due to habitat destruction and wildlife trade.  Slow Loris' are often caught and their teeth clipped for the pet trade and medicinal uses.  When these animals are sold as pets their mortality rate is extremely high.  It is recommended to not have any exotic animal as a pet.  Exotics require more attention, care, nutrition, knowledge and a vet that specializes in exotics.  Most people can not provide this for an animal so it is best to stick to a dog or cat that will cuddle with you as well. 

Slow Loris' are protected from commercial trade but can still be found in markets in China and are often smuggled to Japan.  It is thought that they posses strange powers and can cure many diseases in traditional Asian cultures.  They are still sought after for these reasons.  Although Slow Loris' are hard to study due to their secretive nocturnal behavior, poachers are easily harvesting them using flashlights and looking for their eye shine. 

To protect the Slow Loris' out in the wild, don't buy exotic pets or support stores that offer them.  Also they live in the tropical rain forests of Asia.  In a previous post I wrote about huge areas of the rain forest being destroyed to plant palm plantations.  If you look at the products you buy, make sure they do not have palm oil in them.  Also known as palmitate, palmatine etc.  An easy way to help!

The sleepover participants woke up early for an amazing experience of a behind the scenes tour of the Asian Elephants.  A jam packed night and morning and all for half price at $20!  Next sleepover is scheduled for October 1, 2011!


The Behind the Scenes Tour and Career Day presentations were also a lot of fun.  I truly love trying to inspire kids to figure out their passion and have the motivation and desire to go out and achieve it.  I hope that I and the volunteers opened up their eyes to many possibilities that they had not even thought about. At the end of one presentation a girl reached into her bag to find out her deodorant had palm oil in it.  She shared it with the class and I bet she won't buy that brand again!  Do a little, change a lot.


Nocturnal!

Family Time

We had our first visitor to El Paso and broke some more "myths" of the area.  My mamasita came to visit for a few days and she was shocked at the size of El Paso, not just a border town.  El Paso is again over 700,000 people and if you combine the Las Cruces area it is over 1 million people.  That is not counting Juarez with over 1.5 million people. 

My mom was here for a few days and we were able to explore so many areas but our first stop was of course, The El Paso Zoo!  Pictures, Pictures and more Pictures:

 

Being so close to African lions is amazing.  You can really appreciate how large they are.  Especially when they are stalking you.

 

This Blue and Gold Macaw loves attention and he sure did get ours! 

 My mom is an amazing horse trainer and she was impressed at the training of the Asian elephants.   Love at elephant sight!  

These two old ladies (the elephants) still enjoy their behavioral enrichment and definitely enjoy scouring the exhibit looking for their produce!

After the zoo we explored the local downtown Mexican shops.  The following morning we hiked up a trail at the Franklin Mountains to one of several springs in the area.  Wouldn't it be nice if it was a huge swimming hole with crystal clear water.  What we found was a small mud puddle, but a cottonwood tree, grass, flowers, butterflies, and birds were all loving the oasis of the mud puddle!  And it is just enough water to support wildlife through a tough drought and desert habitat.

We finally reached some shade near the spring!

 

The Spring.  We jumped in and went swimming! ;)

 

Mamasita taking a break.

A lot of work was done on the trails at the Franklin Park.  They are in need of some repair but who knows what will happen now:  TPWD recently went through huge budget cuts and reduced the TPWD staff tremendously in El Paso.  The Superintendent was let go as well and now, the area is managed by someone over 200 miles away.  This is not a good thing for wildlife or parks in Texas and especially in El Paso.  The Wyler's Aerial Tramway that I was lucky enough to ride on to the top of the Franklin Mountains now only has very limited hours on Saturday and Sunday.  The Franklin Mountains State Park is the biggest urban park in the US and faces severe threats of encroachment by houses and roads along the foothills of the state park boundary.  I am worried for wildlife and the land.  It reminds me of Aldo Leopold's "Thinking like a Mountain".  Maybe we should all stop and think about what the mountain needs because in the end it will come back and bite us!  Only the mountain has been around long enough to know how to manage itself. 

Oh and by the way, you can help save the Franklin Mountains, even living out of El Paso.  You can sign an online petition.  Please click here and take a second to sign the petition to save the Franklin Mountains through Care2.  Signing petitions are a great way to support the causes you care about if you don't have financial or volunteer time to give.  So keep it simple and go sign the petition!

 Can you find the animal? 

 That hat saved my life!  So hot in the sun but plop it up on your ponytail and it allows the air to circulate but still provide shade.  I am in the market for a bigger one though. 

My mom looks so teeny in comparison to the mountain.  It was cool to walk through different habitats in the desert.  So much diversity lives here and at first it seems barren, but then your eyes start to see the differences.

A Two-tailed butterfly on a thistle right near the spring at Franklin Mountain State Park.

This beautiful species of butterfly was everywhere once we got up to the spring.  There were also a lot of dead ones there as well.  I did a little research and found out it was Two-tailed swallowtail.  While we were up there we were speculating why there were so many dead ones?  They do lay their eggs on a host tree but in the research it did not say anything about them dying after or not?  So if you know some more on butterfly life cycles please let us know!  And maybe something was eating them because only their wings were left. 

After our long hike we took the scenic road up to Mesilla, a small town in New Mexico.  Along the way there were pecans, pecans and pecans.  Mesilla was a quaint small town that had a Santa Fe vibe with adobe buildings and small shops, art galleries and local food.  Definitely a place I would like to go back and explore more of. 

 Pecan trees take over the landscape on the drive to Mesilla.

So much to do and so little time.  I am so glad my mom had the chance to come down and visit.  On her 8 hour drive home she stopped at the Guadeloupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns and said they were amazing!  I can't wait to visit and camp!

Visit!