Visakhapatnam: How will the zoo inmates react if a mirror, burlap bags, sheets, bomber balls, chew toys and novel objects with food inside are kept in their enclosures? These were the some of the activities explained and demonstrated by three delegates from the Israel National Park Authority (INPA), as part of the workshop on ‘enrichment and best zoo management practices’ at Bioscope Hall of the zoo here on Tuesday.
The Indira Gandhi Zoologial Park conducted the workshop with the Israel zoo authority to share their knowledge and practices with each other, in keeping the mental and physical health of the zoo inmates well.
Roy Gilad, Ori Linial from INPA and Shachar Kara of Jerusalem Zoo Park explained various activities through PowerPoint presentation and also demonstrated how to prepare the novel objects, to ensure that animals get all types of enrichment, besides food.
The workshop was very helpful for zookeepers, who are hardly provided with the knowledge of innovative practices to stimulate environments that could help the animals to demonstrate their specific type of behaviour.
"There could be enrichment programme for all animals, even for lizards. Rather giving food to the animals in a regular fashion in a bowl in their rest houses, the zookeeper could make alternative arrangements by hiding food in an object, hanging food in a tree so that there can be social, sensory, physical and cognitive enrichment," said Mr Ori Linial.
"The zoo animals develop a monotonous behaviour which they keep doing like producing sound or rubbing their feet if they are left idle," Mr Shachar, who works as a zookeeper with Jerusalem Zoo Park, said.
Speaking about the role of the zookeepers, he said, "A zoo could set various criteria for selection of zookeepers but what matters most is whether the person has passion in animal keeping or not."
Zoo curator B. Vijaya Kumar, veterinary surgeon V. Srinivas were also present.
