A Note from Animal Enrichment…

Hi my name is Brigette and this is my fourth year at the zoo. This is my first year working as an enrichment specialist and so far it’s been a blast. The years before I had become so used to working with the public and with the education animals but this year I’m gaining a sense of all the work the zoo keepers do and the personalities and behaviors of individual animals. Each day heading into the zoo my schedule is up in the air as the zoo keepers assign certain animals each day for us to make enrichment for. The fun part about the job is the creativity involved. The enrichment closet is full of different toys and boxes for the animals. Using said toys and food in the kitchen, it is our job to create enrichment that sparks the curiosity of the specific animal. The design of the enrichment depends on the adaptations and behaviors of the animal. We try to make each enrichment unique and new in order to keep the animal stimulated. Because the job requires us to communicate with the zookeepers we learn new things everyday about the animals. The best part about the enrichment track is delivering the enrichment and watching the reaction of the animal. Even though sometimes the enrichment might not work out as well as hoped, we always learn something new from each creation which will certainly make our future projects much better for the animal. Whether it is learning to throw bloodsicles over the fence to the lions or hanging fruit-loop strings for the golden lion tamarins, the beginning of my job as an enrichment specialist definitely set my excitement for the rest of the summer.
GO SLYTHERIN!

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