Interpreting Enrichment for our Guests

We all know that guests enjoy talking to the people who have direct animal care responsibilities. When animal keepers interact with guests, they can make an inspirational connection that lasts a lifetime and can sometimes be a life-changing experience. National studies have shown that two major influences affect people’s positive connection to the natural world. One is the time they spent in nature as a child and the other influence is a person or people in their lives who have modeled a passion for nature and wildlife. Sometimes we forget the enormous impact we can have on guests when we stop for a few minutes and share our passion for animals with them. Disney is well-known for its great guest service. So, it’s no wonder that guests are an important part of everything we do. This includes sharing important messages about animal enrichment. Here are our goals:

Goals for interpreting enrichment to guests:

Share the Animal Program’s mission of delivering uncompromising excellence in animal care and welfare that includes a progressive and integrated enrichment program.
Help guests understand the importance of enrichment for animals.
Inspire guests to take action for wildlife.

Conservation Messages on Animal Enrichment

In Disney’s Animal Programs, we define a conservation message as an action that guests can take to help wildlife. When we are talking to guests about animal enrichment, every conversation we have with guests should include at least one of the take-home messages below:

Create a backyard habitat to enrich the lives of wildlife. Disney’s Animal Program’s staff provides excellence in animal care that includes enrichment as an integral part of our day-to-day animal management. You can enrich the lives of wildlife and encourage natural behaviors in your own backyard by adding a bird bath, log piles, and bird houses. It’s fun to watch wildlife up close!

Seek out information about wildlife and wild places. We are constantly learning new ways to encourage natural behaviors and enrich the lives of animals and you can too! Read books, visit creditable websites and watch nature shows on TV to learn more about wildlife enrichment in zoos and aquariums.

Share your passion about wildlife with friends and family. Share what you learned today about enrichment and how we encourage natural behaviors with friends and family. Let them know you support programs that benefit the welfare of animals.

Research your pets. Disney’s Animal Program animal specialists know the requirements of caring for the many wild animals that live here. Be sure you research the needs of any pets you consider getting and ensure that they did not come from the wild.

Support wildlife organizations. Much of the information that we know about animals, including enrichment and natural behaviors, comes from the study of animals in the wild, many of which are disappearing. You can help by supporting organizations that study and conserve wildlife around the world. Your actions matter!

Use these enrichment messages to inspire your guests to take action for wildlife conservation. It’s a great way to help wildlife and make a difference for conservation. By encouraging guests to make a difference, we are expanding the wildlife conservation effort worldwide and you can take part in this international effort every day!

Enrichment-Focused Experiences for Visitors

At Disney, staff shares enrichment ideas across a variety of teams and venues. Here are a few ways we interact with guests:

Education Teams

Hyacinth macaw exhibit: Every morning the Education Presenter Team shares messages about enrichment with guests as they enter Disney’s Animal Kingdom. A macaw toy is used as a prop to discuss the special requirements such large, powerful and long-lived birds need. Then they share the message of researching pets before purchasing to be sure they are well-suited to living in a home.
Backstage Safari Guest Program: Guests try to get small chocolate bars out of a puzzle feeder as instructors discuss the concept of animal enrichment at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. A short video identifies some of the different enrichment ideas we offer animals as guests eat their candy.

Animal Care Teams at Exhibits

Invertebrate Team: The invertebrate keepers place a variety of spiders and insects in small portable viewing boxes for an up close and personal experience for guests. The boxes include enrichment elements for the animals such as cork-bark, sticks and vegetation for resting and climbing. Keepers vary the shape of the box for climbing species versus terrestrial species. Beautiful red or purple-colored hibiscus flowers are sometimes added as cover and texture for the animals. The guests are also attracted by the lovely flowers and then get a chance to learn more about one of our amazing invertebrates. The keepers suggest ways that guests can help invertebrates in their own backyard by reducing the use of lawn pesticides that are harmful to these important animals.
Primate Team: The primate keepers discuss with guests how they enrich our monkeys and apes. Two feeding techniques are used: the strategic placement and the scattering method of food placement. Both methods encourage natural foraging behaviors in Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s mandrills, gorillas, siamangs and gibbons. These techniques can lengthen foraging time, encourage tool use and allow foraging opportunities for all individuals in the group with an added benefit of reducing aggression in the groups. Keepers suggest that you can learn more about monkeys and apes by reading primate books or visiting the websites of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Dian Fossey Foundation.
Elephant Team: The elephant keepers use a variety of browse samples including willow and bamboo to discuss how they encourage natural foraging behaviors in elephants. The placement and number of locations in the elephants’ habitat promotes good viewing for the guests, distributes the elephants within the exhibit and allows foraging opportunities for all individuals. Keepers suggest that guests can help elephants by supporting conservation organizations that study and protect elephants in both Asia and Africa.
West Savannah Team: Keepers describe how they strategically hang browse, ice blocks and use food puzzles to encourage foraging and investigating behaviors in many of the hoofed species. Keepers suggest that guests share information about enrichment needs of animals with their friends and family to show how much they care for wildlife.

Animal Nutrition Center

A variety of keeper teams staff this guest area and talk about animal care and enrichment as it relates to nutrition. A bulletin board, a binder with pictures and enrichment items such as puzzle feeders, ice blocks, browse, etc. are used as props to convey the ways we offer animals’ choices and activities that promote their natural behaviors.