Fall Enrichment in the Petting Zoo

Our staff in the Creation Museum petting zoo love to incorporate aspects of each season into enrichment activities for our animals. The fall months are no different. Here are three aspects of fall that our animals are able to enjoy.

Apples

Our zookeepers use apples in a variety of ways for enrichment purposes. For Norman, our cow, they dump apples in water and let him “bob” for apples. Once he grabs an apple, he enjoys every bite!

The workers also hang apples from strings to make our animals work for their snack. The animals will take little bites out of the apples since they can’t eat them whole like Norman.

Leaves

Since our camels, sheep, and goats love munching on lettuce, our zookeepers have them search for lettuce in piles of leaves. Having to work to find their snacks is a good way to stimulate their brains.

Our wallabies love playing and eating the leaves as well.

Pumpkins

Our zookeepers also use pumpkins during their fall enrichment activities. Puzzle feeders are made from pumpkins with small holes cut out, and these are filled with cut-up treats for the animals, such as carrots, sweet potatoes, and apples. Since the holes are small, our animals must work to break open the pumpkins for their snacks.

For our wallabies, they fill pumpkins with sugar-free pumpkin pie filling and sweet potatoes.

Our chickens and doves receive the pumpkin seeds and pulp, which can serve as a natural parasite control mechanism for the chickens.

Our zookeepers make sure to use every part of the pumpkins for enrichment.

If you are interested in seeing these different enrichment activities in action, check out this video:

Keep an eye out for these fall enrichment activities at the petting zoo when you visit the Creation Museum. Share your favorite pictures of our animals with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter using #creationmuseum.