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<strong><em>EO Editors: Julie Hartell-DeNardo (Oakland Zoo) and Ric Kotarsky (Tulsa Zoo &amp; Living Museum)</em></strong>

<em>By Melissa Looney
Tulsa Zoo and Living Museum, Tulsa, OK

Special thanks for all the help from
Dana Wilson and Marcie Tarvid</em>

What do you do when someone says, “you have two days to make a new and creative enrichment activity for a video shoot.”  You make a windmill, of course!  It requires thought and manipulation by the animal.  Plus, it is colorful, easy to make, and has moving parts!

The windmill we will build in this article was created for our collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu), Sunny, Nina, and Gregory Pec.  It was inspired by the peccary’s natural tendency to root through substrate and move things with their snouts.  We knew the peccaries would naturally be able to move the sails around and make their food fall out.  We use the grain mix from their daily diet to fill the windmill, and they empty it every time!

The peccaries at the Tulsa Zoo live in a desert-themed exhibit with basic decorations, cacti, and lots of sand.  There are minimal areas for hanging any type of enrichment.  Therefore, we constructed a post to hold the sail (the main moving part of a windmill) that could remain in the exhibit after the sail was removed.  This allowed lots of other new and fun enrichment activities for the peccaries (pecs) later.  Basically, this paper is about one way to make a post that should not fall over in the sand (boring) and how to turn it into a super cool windmill!  We will start with the boring post first.  It requires concrete that can be drying while we learn how to make the sail.  The whole project can be completed for under $35.

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