Animal Enrichment
Komodo Dragon
Varanus komodoensis
Today's enrichment activity was very successful! A pulley system and fish were used in this activity. Komodo Dragons are known to be pretty athletic , considering their size. Just like other monitors, Komodo's are very agile. They can swim, run at high speeds and are able to climb trees.
The Komodo was contained in his indoor barn while we set up the pulley system in his exhibit.
A small piece of rope was used to hang the pulley from the tree. A larger piece of rope was run through the pulley. At the end of that piece of rope, a fish ( Tilapia) was tied at the end. The head and dorsal fins of the Tilapia were removed in order to avoid any harm to the Komodo. The blue material seen in the photo is edible sausage casing that is safe for the Komodo to ingest.
The other end of the rope was strung into the barn through a window that would allow the keeper to pull on the rope from inside the barn. The Komodo was released and immediately keyed in on the movement of the moving fish.
< More info and photos to be posted >
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