Enrichment for lions

Slight change to the usual posts here, but I thought this would interest people. As i'm sure you all know zoos try to excite the lives of their animals in different ways, through hiding food, toys, even to just giving them hills in their enclosures, this is all known as enrichment.

Whilst volunteering at Linton Zoo, I have taken part in some of the enrichment that they do with the lions and here I some of the ways that they do it...

Cardboard is a very simple and incredibly cheap way to provide something for big cats to do, easily torn up and not dangerous in anyway towards them. Here I am laying down a tube of cardboard for the lions in their enclosure.

These may seem completely unnatural but they help stimulate wild behavior, chasing these plastic balls around echoes that of chasing prey, and helps the lions burn some calories! 

In the mounds, zebra dung is quite often placed, this gives the lions new smells to deal with, and they will quite often roll around in it, once again this is something entirely new for the lions to get their heads around.

Above is Safi playing with her new cardboard toy, which did not last very long at all! And below is Zuri on top of his hill, standing right next to where the zebra dung was placed, this is a favourite location for the pair to sit.

So here is just one example of what different zoos do to keep their big cats occupied, and there are plenty of other methods going around. Many include perfumes, big cats have a fantastic sense of smell and by rubbing things like perfumes, cat nip and so on, on logs, it can provide hours of amusement for even the biggest of cats. Many zoos hide the meat for their cats and even put them up poles for the cats to either jump or climb to get their food, thus making their muscles stronger.

I hope you all enjoy this post!