Animal keepers at CuriOdyssey strive to keep our animals stimulated and engaged by creating “enrichment.” Here is a brief overview of what enrichment is from a previous blog post: “So What’s Animal “Enrichment” Anyway?” Our keepers must consider all of the different senses that our animals use when creating enrichment (taste, touch, vision, smell, hearing) to make it as interesting as possible. Some of our animals also have physical challenges, which must be taken into consideration when making enrichment.

One of the senses that keepers utilize when making enrichment for our animals is hearing. In the wild, animals often depend on their ability to listen. Listening can help them hunt for food or avoid becoming food themselves for another animal. Being able to hear one another can also be helpful for animals that communicate through sound. Knowing how stimulating sound can be, our animal keepers will often play recorded sounds for the animals. Our bobcats Frankie and Caro have listened to recorded sounds of a kitten, elephant seals, a peregrine falcon and an American kestrel vocalizing. Our coyote Sierra has listened to recorded sounds of our red fox Zoe and our educational birds often listen to the radio.

[photo by Eunice Hui]

Listening to different sounds is stimulating for our animal collection, just like it is stimulating for people too. What kind of sounds do you like to listen to? Feel free to share them with us in the comment section below, and keep an eye out for the next posting of our “A Closer Look at Enrichment” blog series, which will discuss the sense – taste!

– post by Rachael Tom, Animal Keeper