Christmas is all about giving!  Even Disney’s Animal Kingdom got into the Christmas spirit!  This week, Disney’s animal care team cast members helped the animals celebrate the holidays with unique and festive activities for the animals who call Disney’s Animal Kingdom home.

The Disney Animal care team encourages the animals in their care to exhibit natural behaviors by introducing new things to their environments they can choose to taste, smell, or touch every day.  What better way to continue this encouragement than by helping the animals celebrate the holidays by hand-crafting special gifts complete with scents and food each animal adores!

For the animal keepers, the enrichment is all about getting creative to make a fun and stimulating experience for the animals.  The keepers enjoyed building decorations and wrapping paper in recycled paper and plants and by creating special treats by cutting fruits and vegetables into holiday cookie shapes and turning popcorn into “snow.”

Let’s see how the keepers helped the animals celebrate the holidays!

The Red Kangaroos and the Kunekune pigs were each given yummy treats they can pick off vines and plants or root around for inside boxes.

The Sumatran tigers enjoyed opening their boxes as much of the excitement comes from the suspense of figuring out how to open boxes and containers to find a surprise inside!  This really plays on their animal instincts and playful nature.

For the Western Lowland Gorillas, it is a special time of year for them!  It is baby Grace’s first holiday with her family troop!  There was much to explore and investigate for her as she unwrapped her box to find there was a surprise inside!

Are you visiting Disney’s Animal Kingdom this week? If so, keep your eyes peeled for some surprise-and-delight holiday enrichment fun in many of the animal environments throughout the park. To learn more about enrichment for the animals, visit DisneyAnimals.com.

Source: Disney Parks Blog