An ice lolly for Huan Huan & Yuan Zi
Due to the extremely hot weather ZooParc de Beauval’s pandas have been eating… ice lollies! In this heat, what could be better than a delicious refreshing apple and honey ice lolly? As the pandas have to use all their dexterity to eat these slippery but delicious treats, this is the perfect enrichment for our furry black and white friends! But what exactly is an ‘enrichment’?
In zoos, the keepers often provide a variety of enrichments for the animals they care for, some of which involve food.
Such enrichments often involve stimulating the animal’s curiosity (showing the animal the food item), and then the animals having to explore their enclosures (in order to find hidden food) and then having to use some sort of skill to extract their well-earned reward!
The honey-apple ice lolly is one of the enrichments used with the pandas to stimulate certain behaviours and then to reward them! Huan Huan and Yuan Zi are still licking their paws after this yummy treat…
Source: ZooParc de Beauval
