KONG Company donates zoo animal enrichment toys

Wild Welfare is thrilled to announce it has received a generous donation of enrichment toys from Kong Company.

Kong Company is well-known for its durable rubber and plastic toys that offer play and enrichment opportunities for cats and dogs. Although traditionally meant for domestic pets, Kong toys can provide a huge range of enrichment opportunities for captive wild animals too and are suitable for a variety of species, including monkeys, birds, cats, otters and bears.

Wild Welfare’s projects director, Georgina Allen, said: “Having the chance to offer ready-made, long-lasting items to the zoos we work with, in addition to our low-cost and no-cost enrichment tools, is a huge bonus and a great way to start 2017.”

Good enrichment can help improve the physical and mental wellbeing of zoo animals and training zoo staff how to implement good enrichment practices is an essential part of our team’s work.

Mrs Allen, said: “Zoo staff can use these Kongs to bring variety to the enrichment calendars we teach them to use with their animals. They are such fun toys and it will be great for staff who haven’t seen them before, to witness their animals playing, exploring and enjoying them.”

The bouncy nature of the original rubber Kong toys makes them suitable for throwing, rolling and chasing, they can be filled with seeds, nuts and pellet foods to act like scatter feeders and they can have pieces of meat, vegetable or browse stuffed into them for animals to prise and pull food items out. All these activities add stimulation to an animal’s routine and provide them with the opportunity to express species-specific behaviour, such as foraging and digging for food.

Our sincere thanks go to Kong Company and especially Lindsey Topliss, from their UK customer care team, for arranging the valuable donation. Our team looks forward to using the toys in our future enrichment programs and sharing the fun images of them being put to good use.