EnrichBits: A monthly look at animal enrichment

Occasionally, we’ll get the chance as animal keepers to see our animals react emphatically to a completely different change of routine and surroundings. Over the fall, the Museum was closed to visitors on Mondays, so we used this no-people-on-museum-grounds opportunity to give Max, our Jersey steer, some (unleashed) time out of his exhibit yard. We had never done enrichment like this before, and weren’t sure how Max would react. He is a big animal ( about 700 pounds at the time of this video) and we decided we’d need all the keepers working that day up in the farmyard to help out. During the video, you can see Sherry and volunteer Mike test out a halter grab– which doesn’t look easy, but turned out to be so when we wanted to put Max back on his lead and take him back to his yard.

Anyway, in the video, you can see how just one different thing can really capture an animal’s attention (in this case, a tree!).

Check in for February’s EnrichBits post to see Max start running around!