Enrichment of animals in Bratislava Zoo

One of the news in our Zoo is the enrichment of the lives of our animals as a part of commentated feeding series which are available for our visitors to see every other weekend. This is a continuation of last year’s series which were running every weekend with the assistance of our keepers. It was based on feeding various animals species by the keepers who were also providing information about given species, representative animals at our Zoo, their distribution in the wild, conservation status, behaviour etc.
This year, we are trying to show to visitors what is done for our animals in Bratislava Zoo. Even though this season commentated feedings are reduced to every other weekend, they are completed with demonstrations of enrichment of the lives of our animals. Enrichment is a fitting way of how to occupy animals in captivity and provide a strong experience to our visitors.
Keepers in Bratislava Zoo have been trying for many years to enrich the lives of the animals they are taking care of: they have been making toys and various distractions, as it is a custom in other modern Zoos.
The ambition is to simulate the natural environments of any given species in our Zoo, to provide sufficient possibilities of natural locomotion and to stimulate their instincts. Even though it is not always possible to mimic natural conditions, the least we can do is to try and keep the animals busy in their enclosures so that our visitors do not only see sleeping and bored creatures but rather actively moving, playing animals exhibiting their natural behaviours and abilities by which nature has equipped them. Exactly for this reason, the employees of zoological gardens today realise the importance of enrichment for both, visitors and animals.