Zoo serves up Wimbledon enrichment

_{PUBLISHED 01/07/22}

Zoo serves up Wimbledon enrichment and animals love it!

It’s game, pet and match for the animals at Drusillas this week, as they have been enjoying some tennis-themed fun in celebration of Wimbledon.

The zoo’s group of colobus monkeys were treated to a new swing in the shape of a giant tennis ball, the meerkats dove into a tennis-themed ball pit, the camels investigated new toys, and the armadillos practiced their ground stroke with some ball rolling.

Zoo Section Leader, Claudia Farley commented: “We’re big tennis fans here at the Park, and so thought it was a great excuse to introduce some new activities to our animals. We offer them enrichment activities every day, often different puzzles and challenges to find their food, and it helps keep their little minds active and stimulated, and helps encourage them to use natural and instinctive behaviours such as recognising scents, foraging, and solving problems.”

“We haven’t introduced these items before so it’s fascinating to observe how different species respond to the same stimulus. We have quite a few youngsters in our group of colobus monkeys, including baby Arlo who is only about seven months old - her and her siblings had an ace time swinging from the ball all morning which was brilliant to watch! The meerkats always get stuck into new activities and didn’t want to leave their ball pit once they were in, the camels are super curious and love investigating new items, and the armadillos got some fabulous exercise snuffling and rolling the ball around.”

Each day in the zoo, the 800+ animals are offered new items, puzzles and activities to keep their minds stimulated and healthy.