Animal Enrichment: Giraffes, Puzzle Feeders, and Fun!
Animal Kingdom Lodge provides guests such an incredible opportunity to watch African animals roam the savanna, but did you know you could do more than just watch? Join the Animal Care Team every weekend for a free Animal Enrichment activity! Guests are invited to brighten the day of the giraffes, Ankole cattle, zebras, and other animals by stuffing various puzzle feeders with their favorite treats. Happily, I was able to participate in this activity on a very sunny Saturday afternoon at Kidani Village.
This activity is popular and things happen very quickly, so it’s a good idea to be a few minutes early. We were welcomed to the terrace by a couple members of the Animal Care Team, who spoke to the group for about 5 minutes as the activity began. They explained that we would be filling up puzzle feeders for our friends on the savanna. This gives the animals a chance to really use their brains and problem solve to figure out how to reach the puzzle feeder snacks, exactly the same way we might provide puzzles or other enrichment items for our pets back home (just on a much larger scale!) They provided lots of little insights into Disney’s animal care programs - did you know that if perfume or cologne gets left in Lost & Found, it will usually end up in Animal Kingdom’s tiger habitat? They use unique scents like different perfumes around their enclosure to help the tigers exercise their keen sense of smell.
We were working with a snack ball, a stacker, and pod feeders today, but they did note that Disney uses many different puzzles to make sure they remain challenging for the animals, so each weekend could have a different variety of devices available for guests to fill. The puzzles are filled with “browse”, which is plant material that the animals love to snack on. They showed us a chart of the various types of browse that the animals enjoy, and told us that we had alfalfa, compressed hay, beet pulp, and sweet potatoes to fill the puzzles with today. They were incredibly mindful about allergies, and provided a detailed list of possible allergens for guests. Guests were asked to let them know if they were allergic to any of today’s browse material and they would be happy to accommodate you with safer browse options. There was also hand sanitizer and disposable gloves provided for guests to use.
Then we were ready to start filling up the puzzles! We could choose from any of the browse options from the table, and then we started layering a few different types of browse into our puzzles. During this part, a couple of Animal Keepers joined the group and were available to answer questions and help guests finish up their feeders. Note that there were only 6-7 puzzles available, so they were given out as one per family to share so more guests could participate. Filling all the puzzles up took just about five minutes, and then we were invited to watch the animals enjoy their treats!
The Animal Keepers took the completed puzzles and told us they would drive out on the savanna to give the puzzles to the animals in a few minutes, so we all walked out to the Savanna Overlook to watch. About ten minutes later, their truck arrived on the savanna and they began hanging our puzzle feeders in the trees. The animals all clearly knew exactly was going on and they were very excited for their treats! They hurried right over to the truck to find their snacks - and one greedy giraffe couldn’t wait for it to be hung in the tree and stuck her head right into the truck! It was so fun to see how happy our enrichment project made them, and really interesting to see how smart the animals are and how quickly they figured out the puzzles. There was another Animal Keeper out on the Savanna Overlook with us, and she was more than happy to answer any other questions we had.
It was a pretty hot day, so if the weather out on the Overlook is not ideal, the animals can also be seen enjoying their treats from inside. The windows by Sanaa give you a pretty decent view - there’s a small fenced area in front of the window (where the tortoise lives), and there will be a few snack feeders hung just outside that fenced space.
This was a truly unique and fulfilling activity, and would be a wonderful after-lunch activity if you happen to have a late lunch booked at Sanaa on a Saturday or Sunday. It’s such a cool opportunity to do something helpful and productive for these amazing animals, and I learned so much about Disney’s passion to provide the animals in their care with happy lives, filled with little surprises and treats like these puzzle feeders. And after your activity, be sure to stop in the gift shop and donate to the Disney Conservation Fund so you can continue to help beautiful creatures like these - you will receive a special “Conservation Hero” button with any donation of $1.00 or more, which would be a great memento and the perfect way to cap off your afternoon at Animal Kingdom Lodge!
Animal Enrichment | Saturdays at 3:00PM | Kidani Village | Resort Lobby Terrace
Animal Enrichment | Sundays at 3:00PM | Jambo House | Uzima Overlook
*Activity dates and times listed here were accurate at the time this review was published. Resort activities and activity schedules may change month-to-month, so be sure to check the current Animal Kingdom Lodge Recreation Calendar for updated times/dates when making plans to participate.
