<b>Come Meet Penny, Our New Kea!</b>

While she is sadly missed at the Woodland Zoo, Penny joins a very excited Trevor Zoo family. Ernesto, the zoo's other kea, gained his new partner in early November. Native to New Zealand, the keas are one of the only cold weather tolerant parrots. You can see these intelligent birds in their exhibit playing with enrichment or watching visitors walk by.

The Trevor Zoo uses the method of enrichment to encourage animals to use natural behaviors and create an environment that stimulates them psychologically. Captive animals live in environments that typically provide them with less stimulation than they would experience in the wild. Animals that do not receive enough stimulation can become bored, develop stereotypical behaviors, and experience decreases in general health. Thus, it is extremely important that our captive animals receive as much varied stimulation as possible from our husbandry programs.

There are many benefits of the enrichment program. It increases physical activity for the animals, promotes emotional health, encourages natural behaviors, and stimulates animal intellect. Enrichment can take on many forms; in some cases, food is hidden in natural perching or containers. In other forms, the animals are given toys, such as jolly balls or pumpkins, or the exhibits are modified by adding stools and new branches.

Currently, a college student is conducting behavioral research on kea intelligence, which parallels the zoo's enrichment program.

Come see the keas and our enrichment program in action.