New enrichment mounds pass the sniff test
Peculiar scents are wafting over Werribee Open Range Zoo’s 45-hectare Savannah habitat, causing a stir among the Zoo’s crash of Southern white rhinoceros.
Zookeepers pile up smelly mounds of popcorn, gorilla bedding and rhino poo as an enrichment tool to stimulate a number of natural behaviours among the giant mammals, including scouting, vocalising and flehmen response – a physical response certain mammals use to investigate scents, hormones and pheromones by curling up their top lips and inhaling.
Savannah keeper Alison Edwards said the three rhinoceros perceive the piles of scent enrichment as a precious commodity.
“Enrichment is a really valuable resource and something that the Rhinos love,” Ms Edwards said. “We saw our female rhino, Make [pronounced: Mah-kay], pushing male rhino, Kifaru [pronounced: Kee-fah-roo], off the pile using her horn with a big open-mouth roar, which are both ways that rhinos communicate.
The rhinos at Werribee Open Range Zoo form part of a regional breeding program to maintain an insurance population in the fight against extinction.
“The clashing of horns is something we call sparring. It’s a really important tool for rhinos to work out who’s the boss and what the pecking order is without doing any damage.”
The fresh scents also caused Kifaru to patrol the habitat on the lookout for competing males.
“We add poo from other male rhinos in a separate exhibit. In the wild, male rhinos mark a territory with their scat and urine and will defend their territory and female herd members. Suddenly these smells appear and Kifaru senses other rhinos that might pose a threat to his territory or come in to steal his girls.”
There are fewer than 20,000 Southern White Rhinoceros remaining in the wild with populations under serious threat from illegal and habitat destruction.
The rhinos at Werribee Open Range Zoo form part of a regional breeding program to maintain an insurance population in the fight against extinction.
Zoos Victoria members and Werribee Open Range Zoo visitors are reminded that all tickets must be pre-booked online at zoo.org.au