Holiday Gifts for Zoo Animals

The New Mexico BioPark Society manages several Amazon wish lists for the ABQ BioPark Zoo's residents. The lists feature everything from KONG tires for primates to a food dehydrator that will help elephant keepers create a new way to provide elephants with produce items.

 

Some of the items on the lists will help to create more enriching experiences for the Zoo's residents by promoting natural behaviors while others will help keepers provide top-quality care to the animals.

 

"Taking care of our animals means keeping them both physically and mentally active, and by providing enrichment, we are able to do just that," said Timothy Van Loan, behavior and enrichment manager. "Enrichment allows us to engage our animals and encourage them to showcase their adaptations and abilities that they would need to survive out in the wild."

He added, "Enrichment is only limited by our capacity to think of new items and our ability to get them, which is where the Amazon Wishlist plays a role. It allows our creative keepers to not only come up with their own, novel ideas for improving the care of the animals, but it then allows them to connect with guests and members who want to play a bigger role in the welfare of our animals."

The ABQ BioPark Zoo wish lists can be found here. You can also simply type "ABQ BioPark wish list" in Amazon's general search bar.