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In Providence, Zoo Animals Work for Food

Posted on: Tuesday, 25 March 2008, 15:00 CDT

Imagine a sign at Roger Williams Park Zoo: Will work for food.

The animals have no choice. That's the way they're fed.

"We spend a lot of time and energy on how their diet is presented rather than just putting food in a bowl," says Tim French, the zoo's director of animal care. "We try to spread the food around the enclosure."

Not only that, but the food is often hidden in the enclosure, sometimes spectacularly, so that the animal has to hunt for it.

"Animals in captivity don't have to work very hard. Basically they're just like people. If all you have to do is sit around the house and someone drops a meal in front of you a few times a day, that can be pleasant, but it's not that healthy for you."

Just as people can become couch potatoes, zoo animals can become cage potatoes. Loafing isn't natural, especially for an animal that in the wild would spend four or five hours a day hunting and foraging for food.

Zoo animals need to move, and food is their motivation to do so. At the zoo, often, it is their challenge. Sometimes the zoo will give an animal food that's inside a box or a pipe.

"Some people call them puzzle feeders. We try to stretch the amount of time the animal spends eating its diet. It's physically healthier for them because they're burning calories as well as taking them in. It's also effective for their mental health."

Challenges are presented in an animal-appropriate way.

"A great ape is a much more complicated puzzle feeder. A carnivore might not have that same cognitive ability and will quit on it."

In addition to prepared foods, the zoo also provides completely natural ones: the carcasses of rabbits, fish, mice and rats. This year, for the first time, the zoo received from the Department of Environmental Management some donated deer hides, which were given to the wild dogs.

"It's not a whole lot of nutritional value. But it's good mental stimulation for them. It's novel. It's different from what they're accustomed to. It's not processed meat. It's real and has hair."

That means the dogs have to think about what to do; how to eat what little meat is there without getting a mouthful of hair. The hides also create a hierarchy.

"They allow the dogs to express and work on their social order. If you put dry dog food out, none of them is particularly excited about it. But if you put a deer hide out, the most dominant animal will make sure he will express his dominance and will get the preferred piece. That harmony of the pack is important to maintain." brourke@projo.com / (401) 277-7267

Source: Providence Journal

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