Today was a slow one. I didn't eat breakfast in the house. Only a Lära Bar. Fresh out of the big CO. Tell me how they make 100 different flavors only using the same 4 ingredients. Witchcraft.
We first prepared enrichment with my enemy, Mandy. For those not familiar, enrichment is basically items/food we give to captive animals in order to provide them with stimulation. The key to enrichment in this setting is to help stimulate NATURAL behaviors, like foraging or hunting. In other settings, enrichment can be computer screens, sounds, or just flavors to help keep the animal from being bored af in their captive environments. Here, though, the care technicians want the animals to practice doing the things they need to be good at when they are finally released into the wild.
We went with Mandy to collect branches and leaves and grass (browse). Then, we stuffed these items into cereal boxes, Coke bottles, and hoses along with rice and peanut snacks! This way, the monks could forage through the grass and junk to find their little food pieces!
Haha the best reaction was from the juvenile baboon. She got a coke bottle filled with browse and snacks! SHE WENT CRAZY FOR IT!!! She flung that thing all over her enclosure! Slung it every which way! Jumped here and there and smashed it and crunched it and flipped around, letting go of it at the most random times! Banging it on the walls and floors! All the while grabbing the snackies that slewed out of it! V funny.
Then we learned from Mandy about doing behavioral observations. I didn't find this as fun.
Jasper gave us a lecture about how to release animals back into the wild.
Lunch was veggie soup with rolls.
I had a beer from the bar up at wifi because classes ended early today. During that time, Alma strolled by. She sat down for a while to talk about enrichment! She actually asked me for suggestions from my work!! We talked for a bit and it was really cool. Then, I helped her carry stuff to the car.... And after, she walked all the way back to camp holding 30 raw eggs in the pitch black dark, so I really thought that was the last I'd ever see of her or those eggs. But people here can see in the dark. I think I blogged about that while I was in Guinea.
So, tomorrow we are going to Kasungu National Park to do a bunch of stuff that I don't even know about. I'm flying by the seat of my pans on this one, folks. I hope to see some rad animals... I'm pretty sure this will be the most remote area I've ever been to. This makes me feel invigorated.
No wifi due to remote.
Warm regards,
LA
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