The goal of Bear Creek's Enrichment Program is to involve our staff, keepers, students and volunteers in our environmental enrichment program that we have
been experimenting with for the last decade. We enrich the animal enclosures by making changes like adding new logs, trees, shrubs, boulders, pools and toys.
By presenting these new objects and smells we give the animals more choice to investigate, explore and keep them more active. We stimulate their feeding behaviour by hiding their food on a tree, under a log or even in the water, this encourages the animal to forage, hunt and handle their food in a natural way.

We all know that no matter how large an enclosure is, it will never replace hundreds
of square miles in the wild. Territories in the wild are large not as a matter of choice
but of necessity. Animals that are born in captivity have never experienced such
space, for them there is no need to go hunting or finding a mate. An animal will
take posession of its zoo space in the same way it would claim a new space in
the wild and it will defend and possibly kill should it be invaded.

Taj hunting - we placed food in her pond

Marika trying to get walnuts out of the tubes

Zulu loved bowling when he was a baby

Boo Boo was busy all day searching for and licking the honey-dipped stick

Taj investigating that strange odor we sprayed on the tree (shaving lotion)

Boo Boo got tired of bathing in her pool and tries it upside-down

Other enrichments we've used:
Snowmen filled with food
Clean Christmas trees
Hanging ice blocks made out of frozen food
Hammocks

She also spends a lot of time ine her lookout post high up in her tree seat

Reign splashing in his tub. Tigers love water.

Tiger heaven on a hot day.

Bwana taking snowmobile lessons

Coco (nuts) she loves undoing nuts and bolts for hours. She puts them back together, too.

Gurl, our Siberian or Eurasian lynx, checks out her new toy.

Basketballs don't last long

But most of all, we give them lots of love, and that's the best enrichment there is.

Thank you Beth, for taking our pictures!
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