Stimulating natural behaviors: Enrichment for brains and hands (1993)

Maxwell, J.

Abstract

Observing that our animals were interested in the water gave us the idea of offering live feeder gold fish in the exhibit pools as a form of captive enrichment. When we introduced this activity, the adult male, Dom, a wild-caught animal, took the lead. The entire troop went to the pool to watch Dom demonstrate his skills. He took a handful of hay from the bedding on the cage floor and threw it onto the water. This created a shadow that the fish went into immediately. Dom then shot his hand through the hay and pulled out a fish, bit it once, and tossed it to his offspring.