NEW KNOWLEDGE ON CREATING ENRICHMENT

The BOS Foundation Enrichment team in Samboja Lestari and Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Programs picked up new knowledge in building more enrichment infrastructures, thanks to the Shape of Enrichment who conducted workshop series in Samboja Lestari and Nyaru Menteng the past 2 weeks.

The workshop was as result of collaboration between BOS Foundation, BOS Australia, Top and Pamela Conder, Zoos Victoria, Aussie Dog, and Shape of Enrichment. Valerie Hare from the Shape of Enrichment, gave workshop participants some new insight on the purpose and principles of building enrichment installations. All enrichment tools are made to stimulate and enhance animals’ abilities related to foraging and tool use.

The first workshop at Samboja Lestari was attended by delegates from 13 organisations, including SOCP, Animals Indonesia, IAR, Semarang Zoo, COP, OCC (OFI), and Save Borneo Wildlife. Since the workshop was held indoor and outdoor, it was quite logistically challenging to move 40 people around Samboja Lestari. Valerie and Kylise Hare did an amazing job delivering enrichment information and processes in an interesting and engaging way. Valerie is a long time expert in enrichment installation. There was a lot of information to take in and the delegates remained enthusiastic through the long lectures. Fisca and Dian helped translating materials given by Valerie and Kylise for the participants.

The practical sessions of building, installing and evaluating the enrichment were great fun. The participants showed great team spirit, and they gave wonderful feedbacks with the comments showing how much they had all learnt.
 
The workshop in Samboja lasted for 4 days, started on 6th and finished on 9thFebruary. The team then moved to Nyaru Menteng for the second string of workshop.

At Nyaru Menteng, all staff were given the opportunity to attend three lunchtime lectures. Representatives from medical team, technicians, cleaners, welders, and baby sitters all came down to the Information Center where the workshop was held. It was really nice to see staff members come in on their days off to learn about enrichment. Here, Christian and Nick helped with the intepretations.

The team also ran a focal group over six days going into more detail about enrichment including data collection. The focal group mainly composed of the enrichment team, but the welding team needs to get a special mention for staying focused through some of these long lectures and being part of the focal group.

The focal team went on to build, install and evaluate enrichment for the forest school orangutans. Ten new enrichment designs were installed, overall very successful. The enrichment team especially, was showing great passion to learn and implement new ideas they obtained from the workshop. This shows how dedicated this team is.

Thanks to the workshop, the BOS Foundation is now more ready to provide a better care for our rehabilitated orangutans!