WITH “R” FOR REUSE

4 de December de 2023

The only limit to reusing materials is our imagination, and animal centres such as the Zoo Aquarium in Madrid or Faunia know this all too well, as they take advantage of many reused materials to create materials used in the facilities and for environmental enrichment activities.

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One of the most important factors for an animal’s comfort are their rest and play areas. For many years, hoses donated by the Community of Madrid Fire Brigade have been used to build hammocks in the Panda bear, orangutan, gorilla and capuchin monkey areas at the Madrid Zoo and at the Saimiri facility at Faunia (among many others). They could no longer be used for putting out fires, but still had a lot of life left in them.

One strategy that is conducive to the physical and mental well-being of zoo animals is their environmental enrichment, which seeks the following objectives:

To create dynamic, attractive environments that offer new stimuli to the animals’ everyday life.
To provide cognitive challenges and opportunities to interact with other members of the group.
To encourage naturally rewarding behaviours.
To help them stay in good physical shape and exercise as they would in their natural setting.

To achieve all these goals, the children who take part in camps or activities at the Madrid Zoo Aquarium prepare different experiences for the animals at the zoo. These can range from preparing their food in special ways (different from usual), to hiding pieces of fruit in reused materials such as bottles, hoses… or creating special toys out of crates, egg cartons or old T-shirts no longer used. These environmental education activities help to improve the wellbeing of the zoo’s inhabitants and to raise awareness among children about the importance of reusing materials and caring for and respecting the environment. If you’d like to know more details, you can follow us on the campaign’s social networks, on @AciertaOrganica, and on Instagram @conrde_madrid, where we publish, among others, multimedia content on the campaign’s actions, waste issues and circular economy.