No one likes getting into a rut doing the same things over and over again and we now know that animals don’t either. In the wild, animals encounter many challenges in their day to day life. In Zoos, there is no need to hunt, forage for food, and to protect themselves from predators, so to prevent boredom,  Zookeepers (both at John Ball Zoo and Zoos around the world) must be very clever about finding ways to keep their animals’ instincts sharp and their senses stimulated. This practice of animal care is called “animal enrichment”. 

John Ball Zoo has a detailed, daily, enrichment plan in place for most of the 2,000 animals in their care. Sometimes it’s a tried-and-true method, such as peanut butter stuffed inside a coconut. At other times it’s experimental. One of the chimp keepers at John Ball Zoo gave the chimps a pillow case. The smallest one put it on her head – ghost style – and ran around chasing the other chimps.