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Chimp creative enrichment
31 December 2005
Challenging the Chimpanzees - Wellington Zoo's chimpanzees experienced creative enrichment of a special kind on 16 December 2005 when primary school children from Mount Cook School in Wellington handed over toys they had designed for the chimps to enjoy.
While the Zoo's chimps are used to finding hidden food and using tools to get honey out of pipes, Wellington Zoo's chimp Keeper, Jo Turton knew that the chimps would relish the chance to try their hand at something new.
'The chimps loved the enrichment that the kids had made them. The pinatas were so bright, and chimps can see in colour so they found them really interesting,' Jo said.
'The chimps like to revisit things, so the toys the kids made entertained them for hours after they were first given them.'
The idea for the chimp enrichment followed a visit Sarah Evans, Zoo educator, made to Mount Cook School where she taught the children in years 3 - 6 about animal enrichment at the Zoo and the conservation status of chimps in the wild.
'The kids were really inspired by the idea of animal enrichment, and they took it on as a whole unit. The point of creative enrichment is for the chimps to be challenged and to use their brain power to solve the problem the toy poses,' Sarah said.
Following Sarah's lesson, the classes were asked to research chimps and come up with some ideas of what they thought would interest the chimps. 'I posed a problem for them - how do we challenge the Zoo chimps - and they went from there,' Sarah said.
The design ideas presented to Zoo staff varied from huge ice blocks to a chimp dart board. In the end Zoo staff and the kids agreed on three designs, the pinatas, milk bottle rattles and a hanging log with holes drilled for food to be hidden in.
'It really warms my heart to see kids so interested in the chimps and the amount of thought they put into designing the enrichment. The chimps had a great time,' said Jo.
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