Brief description: In free-living situations, chimpanzees spend a great deal of their time traveling and searching for food. In captivity, caregivers spread out food in enclosures to encourage chimps to exercise and show their natural foraging behavior. At CSNW, we do forages on a regular basis. However, we make sure to continue to serve the majority of meals directly to the chimpanzees. This way we can monitor their diets and ensure that less dominant individuals are getting enough to eat.
Materials: Regular diet, or novel forage items like cereal, freeze-dried fruits and veggies, popcorn, seeds, etc.
Assembly instructions: Cut up regular diet, or gather novel items.
How to use: Spread food throughout indoor and/or outdoor enclosures. Forages can be made more challenging by cutting food up very small or putting it in a difficult place to reach. Sticky foods like peanut butter or banana can be smeared on clean walls for additional enrichment.
Price: Free (assuming food for forages is already accounted for in food budget).
Negra forages for cabbage.
Foxie collects primate chow on a forage.
