8th October 2011
Just an insight into some of the ways we keep the cheeky little monkeys happy today with a simple but effective enrichment we give them every morning. Instead of placing the food in easily accesible places inside the enclosure, our tour guide Faye is seen here throwing the selection of mixed fruit onto the roof. This may seem like a lazy way out, instead of going into the enclosure to put the food in, but in fact the slices of fruit on the roof gives about 20 minutes of 'enrichment' for the monkeys. Just like the way they would be climbing and pulling off fruits from tress in the rainforests the monkeys have to use their muscles to climb around and then use their minds to manipulate the fruit through the holes in the mesh.
This is especially fitting for the spider monkeys who have what is effectively a 5th limb in the form of their prehensile tail, that they can use to hang off the roof with whilst they use their hands to manipulate the fruit.
The fruit on the roof also brings out some often hidden athletism in the capuchin monkeys and here we seen capuchin monkey 'Bailey' trying out some Indiana Jones type manovures:
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