The Cotton-top Tamarin brothers at our Education Centre become very inquisitive when we bring new things into their enclosure, even if it’s a new raincoat or a new keeper!

This week we gave the brothers, Juan, Pedey, JD and Trichidae, a mirror to see how beautiful they are! They loved checking themselves out in the double-sided mirror and spent a long time trying to figure out who they were looking at! Juan looked a bit disappointed about having a bad hair day!

The other enrichment was a box filled with balls. Some of the balls contained mealworms and they all had to figure out how to get to these delicious treats by sticking their hands in and moving the balls around! The keepers had just as much fun watching them as they had playing and discovering their new found beauty and ball skills!

Providing our animals with enrichment is a huge and extremely important part of our daily work at Taronga Zoo. Just like we might enjoy going to the park or curling up on the couch to read a new book, our animals also enjoy physical and mental stimulation,  keeping them happy and engaged. Providing our animals with new and exciting things encourages them to perform natural behaviours such as foraging, problem solving and working to find food.

The Keepers love doing research into providing new enrichment for our animals, no matter the species. It’s so exciting for us when we discover something new that our animals love to play with; and they obviously have a great time too!

Check out a few pictures at the link below.

- Keeper, Bec Noad