Ingenious contraptions keep curious meerkats guessing

This week, the Zoo’s five Slender-tailed meerkats were given two enticing enrichment activities: bamboo feeders, resembling small flutes, filled with mealworms that need to be tipped and rattled to release the high-value reward; and pinecones stuffed with cut vegetables, hidden amongst large hibiscus flowers.

Meerkat keeper Suzanne Szabo said these exciting enrichment activities form part of a rotating program designed to continually challenge and engage the Zoo’s animals, while also being healthy and delicious.

“We create a lot of different enrichment for the animals at Werribee Open Range Zoo,” Ms Szabo said. “For our meerkats, it’s designed to encourage their natural behaviours, like foraging, and to make their environment even more stimulating.”

“We create a lot of different enrichment for the animals at Werribee Open Range Zoo,” Ms Szabo said. “For our meerkats, it’s designed to encourage their natural behaviours, like foraging, and to make their environment even more stimulating.”

The pinecones and bamboo feeders are diligently prepared by Zoo volunteers using items commonly found across the zoo.

“A lot of the enrichment we provide for our animals use things that we find around the property,” Ms Szabo said. ‘When a tree or a bush needs to be removed, we find ways to repurpose the natural materials, so almost nothing goes to waste.”

Slender-tailed meerkats live in deserts and grasslands in Angola, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.

Meeting the meerkats at Werribee Open Range Zoo provides an opportunity to connect with their African cousins and to learn how we can all support the conservation of threatened species in the wild.

Zoos Victoria’s Beads for Wildlife initiative supports the protection of the rangelands in Northern Kenya through the sale of handmade beadwork available through Zoos Victoria’s website or retail spaces.