Some extras for the guests

Press, 22 July 1986, Page 10

Some extras for the guests

NZPA-AAP London London Zoo is introducing paddling pools, selfservice showers, an electric organ and slide shows to brighten life for the apes.

Having already exhausted the intellecutal possibilities of eating, sleeping, scratching and other tricks perhaps better not mentioned, the pampered primates will be able to seek stimulation when they feel they

need it. Projects planned include a paddling pool for pig-tailed macaques, an electric organ for the great apes, a slide show which can be controlled by the orang-utans and an artificial termite mound in the chimpanzee’s compound from which they will be able to scoop cho-colate-flavoured baby food and raspberry jam. The chimps, pig-tailed macaques and orang-

utans already have showers which they can turn on themselves. The initiatives are the latest attempt to improve the lot of the larger mammals at the zoo, where restricted space and the need for security can make their lives dull.

The project is sponsored by the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare. In a separate experiment, the orangutans have been offered a variety of books to mani-

pulate, including telephone directories (no telephones, though). A planner of the stimulation programme, Mr Hal Markowitz, has compared the traditional life of a zoo ape with that of a human inmate of a prison or home.

Terry Maple, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, said that circus chimpanzees had been found to be livelier and better-stimulated than those in zoos.