I have a wildlife zoo

The animal keeper laughed and said, "Yes, parrots do eat pumpkins, but this isn't just for eating, you know. Take a closer look!"

"Huh?"

Hearing this, the children leaned closer to the railing, stood on tiptoe, and observed more intently.

Wang Haoran saw that the parrot seemed to pull a black object out of the pumpkin?

It looked like a seed!

Clutching it in its beak, the parrot struggled to crack it open for a while and finally got to the seed inside. After eating, it chirped twice and then hopped back onto the pumpkin, pulling out another seed, seeming quite happy.

On the food stand's platform, in addition to the pumpkin and water, there were about a dozen scattered seed shells, not very noticeable; he hadn't paid attention to them earlier.

"There are seeds hidden inside the pumpkin, and the parrots are eating the seeds!" Wang Haoran exclaimed with delight.

"Really!"

"Parrots can even shell seeds!"

The other children also discovered the secret.

"That's right!" said the animal keeper. "This is a form of enrichment. Does any student know what 'enrichment' means?"

The children looked puzzled and shook their heads to indicate they didn't know. However, the class representative Zheng Yan raised her hand.

She had paid attention during a previous visit to the zoo, and now confidently said, "Enrichment is making the animals' lives happier and more comfortable!"

Yang Sibo wondered, "Why does hiding seeds in a pumpkin make the parrots happy? Isn't it all just food?"

Wang Haoran said, "Watching them eat the seeds, it looks like a lot of effort. If I peeled all the seeds for them, wouldn't the parrots be even happier?"

"Um..." Zheng Yan felt something was not quite right but couldn't quite explain it.

The animal keeper explained, "What this classmate just said is correct, enrichment is indeed about making animals happier.

"Why would parrots be happier with seeds hidden in a pumpkin? First, it provides them with a sense of novelty. Instead of just feeding them seeds, today we hollowed out a pumpkin and hid the seeds inside. It's like if your mothers always make rice and a boiled egg separately, but today they combined them and made egg fried rice!

"Usually, the meat is stir-fried, but today she made braised pork! Wouldn't you also be very happy?"

"Oh~" The children suddenly understood, the animal keeper had used examples from their own lives, and they got it.

"Happy!"

A little chubby kid excitedly said, "I love braised pork the most!"

The animal keeper continued, "Although parrots eat pumpkin, this pumpkin is not just food; it's also a toy.

"Look, the parrots can't easily get at the seeds. They either stand on the pumpkin, which rolls around like a little ball, or they stand on tiptoes on the platform and stick their heads into the hole to reach inside the pumpkin to grab the seeds.

"During this process, the parrots exercise their foraging ability, balance, and the muscles in their neck and legs.

"In the wild, animals need to spend a lot of time searching for food, and in the process of foraging, their abilities are honed.

Our enrichment design respects animals' natural behaviors, allowing them to experience fun and challenges while obtaining food.

"Think about it, if your homework were always questions like what's 1+1, and the tests were also only this, resulting in you always getting 100%, and at home, your parents made you the same meal every day, wouldn't you find it boring?"

The children thought about it and realized that was the point!

Doing 1+1 equals what every day, even if they always scored 100%, wouldn't be meaningful.

"Chitter-chatter!"

A few little green parakeets were noisily calling non-stop, hopping and jumping around. As soon as one companion got a sunflower seed and flew to the side to start cracking it open, the next one immediately squeezed over.

Facing this pumpkin feeder, they seemed very excited.

The animal keeper said, "Although it's troublesome to crack open the sunflower seed shells, the food tastes all the more delicious after some effort. Look how much they enjoy eating it.

The intelligence of birds is very developed, especially some parrots and members of the crow family, which can even solve some very complex problems.

For these smart animals, one of our jobs as keepers is to change the types of food regularly, provide various ways of feeding, and increase the methods and difficulty of feeding."

The children looked at the parakeets eating again and felt differently.

Through the animal keeper's introduction of the pumpkin feeder, a sense of empathy began to emerge in their minds.

Initially, they went by instinct, thinking that animals' needs are just to be well-fed and watered, and parakeets would be happier if someone peeled the sunflower seeds for them.

Now, they considered from the animals' perspectives, empathetically thinking about what the animals themselves liked.

To understand an animal's habits is to know what they need, what they like, and what humans think is good but might actually not be good for them.

Assuming what's good for animals without understanding them is very disrespectful and arrogant.

"Move on, move on, let's go forward!" the teacher called from the front of the line.

If these kids weren't urged on, they could spend fifteen to twenty minutes engrossed in one spot and wouldn't finish touring a birdhouse even by lunchtime.

Wang Haoran and his friends looked at the parakeets and reluctantly moved on.

Zheng Yan held her notebook and showed the animal keeper the bird she had just drawn, asking, "Excuse me, what bird is this?"

The keeper glanced at it, and although the drawing was quite rough, the color markings on different feather areas made it identifiable. He smiled and said, "Oh, this is a superb starling!"

Walking on the aerial corridor, the immense tetrameles nudiflora was now right before their eyes.

Fang Ye stood under the tree canopy with a smile, commanding the parakeets to perform flight tricks under the eager eyes of the children.

The parakeets soared around, showing off their beautiful maneuvers.

With a whistle from him, they landed on his body and the surrounding treetops.

"Wow, the zookeeper is so amazing!"

"How did the zookeeper do that, teach me please!"

"I want to be a zookeeper too! I want to command the parakeets to fly wherever I tell them to!"

The children watched with shining eyes, clapping vigorously with a "squawk squawk"!

Especially the little boys, who fantasized about being "Animal Marshals," capable of communicating with animals and having a flock of birds carry them flying through the sky, which was so impressive.
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"Food, food!"

Jin Martin, perched on his shoulder, turned its head around, calling to him, and gently tapped with its beak.

Fang Ye replied while reaching into his pocket, "Alright, alright, no need to call out, you won't miss out!"

With an outstretched hand, Jin Martin flew down.

Fang Ye stroked its head and introduced, "This parakeet is named Jin Martin. It loves listening to songs and DJ-ing. It's a very charismatic bird! If you play an upbeat song, it will dance non-stop to the rhythm of the music, flapping its wings continuously."

"Wow~"

The children were astonished. Parakeets have their own hobbies and personalities? They like listening to music?

Once again, their understanding of animals was refreshed.