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Two tree trunks, a chain, four tractor tyres and a whole lot of food keep Kinkel the elephant from getting bored and depressed.
Kinkel, the playful jumbo, takes a break from his new toy
THE elephants at the Johannesburg Zoo have a new toy, and while it may be fun to play with, it has a useful function too.
Designed to enhance their wellbeing, the toy stimulates natural behaviour, such as searching for food. It consists of two gigantic tree trunks and a massive chain, with four tractor tyres tied between the trunks. Food is hidden in the tyres; when the elephants play with their new toy, they are rewarded with grub.
Kinkel, the male, and Lammie, the female, eyed the structure suspiciously when it was first placed in their enclosure, preferring to avoid it while they figured out what to do with it. Kinkel was the first to venture closer.
He charged towards one of the tree trunks, pushing it with all his strength; then he tried the second trunk. From there he moved on to the chain and tyres - and discovered the food, recalls Letta Madlala, the zoo's brand and communications manager.
"Males push trees and are much wilder compared to females," explains Alice Masombuka, the elephant keeper. "They also fight. That's why [we] brought in the stimulation toy ... to make Kinkel think that he is still in the wild. Elephants have to be kept busy at all times otherwise they will destroy the enclosure and become depressed."
The male elephant was born in the wild in 1983. But when he was three years old, his trunk was caught in a poacher's snare. The snare made a hole through it and he was unable to be returned to the wild. He was brought to the zoo in 2000.
His partner, Lammie, was born at the zoo in 1979. More used to being in the enclosure, she is calmer. The new toy gives her a break from the more boisterous Kinkel.
"When he plays with the toy, she has more time to herself without being disturbed. She normally keeps herself occupied by playing with sticks," says Masombuka. "Kinkel plays with the toy more often. He is male and it's in his nature to be more playful."
Enrichment
The elephant's new toy is part of the zoo's environmental enrichment programme, which has both naturalistic and behavioural engineering elements.
The naturalistic approach relies on recreating aspects of the wild in captivity. It provides stimulation for captive animals, whereas behavioural engineering relies on providing artificial devices that animals operate to receive some sort of reward, usually food.
Providing naturalistic environments is extremely important to the zoo. These enable it to teach visitors about the animals and their habitats, which has a knock-on effect on environmental conservation.
For instance, when animals are housed in an enclosure that resembles their natural habitat, zoo visitors are able to link the animal with its natural environment and understand the necessity of preserving that habitat in the wild.
Behaviour enrichment is also important and is used to encourage natural behaviours such as searching for food or stimulating work and play. The zoo strives to create enclosures resembling the wild. But this is difficult when it comes to elephants, because they are so big and strong. Trees do not easily survive a sustained onslaught from a determined pachyderm.
To counteract the lack of trees, the zoo provides behaviour enrichment objects. The aim is to stimulate the elephants to behave as they do in nature. This behaviour includes pushing and rubbing against large trees, searching for food and investigating objects found in their immediate environment.
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