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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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<p style="text-align: left;"><strong>Post.</strong> Your post does not have to be complicated.  If you have a straight, vertical section of perching in your exhibit, bolt the sail right to it.  Or, you could mount a piece of 2x4 to a mesh wall and bolt the sail to the 2x4.  There are lots of options.  The only thing you need to make sure of is that the sail is allowed to spin straight up and down without hitting anything.  Our post needs to be more elaborate because we are working in a sand pit.  The ground is about two feet of sand over rock and dirt.  Driving a post may be difficult and may not be stable.  Easy removal is also a must.  We work hard enough without creating new problems.

With all this information in mind, here is what I came up with….  Take a 5’ piece of 1 ¼” PVC and drill a couple of ½” holes around the last 2” of one end.  Get a 12-quart plastic storage container, about 16”L x 10”W x 6”D.  Mix up enough Quikrete® concrete to fill it about ¾ of the way full.  Just follow the mixing and safety instructions.  Put a couple inches of concrete in the container, push the PVC pipe (the end with the holes drilled in it) down into the center of the container, and finish adding the rest of the concrete.  Make sure the concrete goes inside the bottom of the pipe and through the holes.  This keeps the PVC firm in the concrete.  Let the concrete dry.  Our concrete does not need to be pretty because we are going to bury it.  However, if your post is going to be exposed, you could decorate it.  Just line the bottom and sides of the storage container with pretty river rock, leaves, pine needles, etc. and then add the concrete.  For this application, I would try Quikrete® sand/topping mix.  Sometimes the gravel in the regular concrete mix gets in the way of sinking the decorations.  Once all of the concrete is added, press more decorations into the top of the concrete.  After it dries, remove the concrete base from its container.

Right now we could stop and have a very handy browse and toy holder, but we will need extra stability in case…….

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