Today we ensured we arrived well before 6:30am. We spent the first session watching the Langur introduction between a male and female. They’d spent some time next to each other in the enclosure before the main door was opened. They spent a lot of time at opposite corners with their backs facing each other pretending they didn’t exist. There were a few tense moments where they chased each other around the pen but generally seemed to go well.
After breakfast John was on enclosure repair while I prepared some enrichment items for the Loris. They eat a lot of tree sap so we make up a paste and mix it with other sap and place into the timber with holes for them to eat.
After lunch we brought in the zoo toys we’d bought from Aussie Dog. we met Joe on our Thailand trip 11 years ago when he was making shoes for elephants. We love bringing along his creations for the animals to use.
The keepers had fun working out how we’re going to use some of the items and paired them with some home made enrichment.
The langurs watched the excitement trying to work out what we were all up to.
Then we were off with our wheelbarrow of fun. Delivering toys to the varying groups of gibbons to try.
They were excited to see a new toy. These tube feedballs are a bit more complicated. The food is placed in the red ball and they have to get it into a hole in the blue tube before it drops through the bottom.
They were quite taken by the bungee. Inside the yellow ball is a marble that make the all rattle. It’s attached to a bungee that stretches when they pull and swing on it.
They sniffed, licked, tugged and kicked at them.
The went back to the homemade version that they knew well.
But kept going back determined to work out these new toys.
The even tried turning the feed tube upside down to investigate further.
After all that fun it was back to bundling leaf for tomorrow.
