by liz » Sun Jan 08, 2017 7:07 am
I was once told by a rehab supervisor at the zoo that wild animals don't play when I commented on a goose playing in her water dish. This woman was a hard worker and did not hesitate to get dirty when needed. She just did not understand that critters were being too and that any critter with a full belly will play. While there I took time to be with the ones that were just being fed and cleaned. I danced with a stork that was put outside in a cage and had nothing to look at all day. Oscar the vulture was so bored that when I went out for a smoke break sitting on a rock outside his cage, he started the communication. We played tug of war with branches through the cage. We sat together while I was talking he sat their listening for words he could understand. The intelligence really showed when he told me about the game he created. There was a rotten stump in his cage and the ground was covered with pebbles. He would take a pebble and stick it in a rotted hole. He also showed me that they were interchangeable with the other pebbles.