TYLER, Texas — “It's Christmas. Everyone likes to give gifts around this time of the year,” Tori Malley, Caldwell Zoo’s Enrichment Coordinator, said.
But at the Caldwell Zoo, there are those who enjoy receiving gifts: the animals.
Due to the pandemic, Caldwell Zoo has had to move its annual enrichment Christmas tree wish list completely online, and they’re asking for the community to band together to give these animals a Christmas to remember.
“It's really a way for the community to connect with the Caldwell Zoo and to connect with our animals,” Malley said. “Of course, it helps us out because we are a nonprofit zoo. So any help that we can get, we're able to take that money and put that back into the zoo back into the animals in some way.”
Their wish list is full of items big and small, from baby food for primates to giant, empty kegs for the elephants to use to strengthen their trunks. They are also looking for hardware like drills and bolts to help build enrichment projects at the zoo.
Their goal is to get enough enrichment to last them a year.
“Each week, we’ll share items for different animals that are hand-selected by our expert keepers,” according to the Caldwell Zoo’s Facebook post. “All of the treats are chosen to provide hours of ‘enrichment’ for our wild family.”
Each of the items chosen is not just for entrainment — enrichment is carefully planned to “help to bring out their natural behaviors,” Malley said.
Small rock caves encourage reptiles to find shelter as they would in the wild. Dog toys stuffed with treats ensure that cheetahs learn to attack, eat and prey. Wood bird toys not only give Macaws something to play with but to help smooth their beaks.
“We want something not only to keep them what people would consider entertained, but there's a purpose behind that,” Malley said. “A lot of people would perceive [enrichment] as something fun for them to do, but there is always something in the back works. We're working towards a goal.”
The enrichment tree has gone online in previous years, but the Christmas tree usually stands at the front of the zoo where the community can pick ornaments from it. On those ornaments are items the zoo needs which the community can buy and donate.
For safety concerns, the zoo decided against a communal ornament tree, but Malley is hopeful the community will continue to show their support.
“In the past, we have been extremely, extremely successful with this,” Malley said. “The community already shows their love for us, we get, you know, a whole table full of items, which is amazing.”
The Caldwell zookeepers have also recently been to workshops to learn how to make their own enrichment for the animals out of recycled firefighter hose — another way Caldwell tries to improve their animals’ lives, Malley said.
“We’ve taken workshops,” Malley said. “We brought that knowledge home with us.”
Their current Amazon wish list is posted on the Caldwell Zoo Facebook page. Each week, they’ll have a new list of items they need to ensure the welfare of their animals.
“It's definitely a way for [the community] to be able to really grasp and help us and really have that heartfelt connection with the animals as well,” Malley said.
