The Little Rock Zoo and Lyon College of Batesville have announced a long-term partnership that aims to offer hands-on educational opportunities for undergraduate students interested in pursuing animal-related professions.
The partnership forms an animal enrichment course, which will teach students to study, create, troubleshoot and implement enrichment for various animal species. Coursework will combine lectures with hands-on lab activities, taught by Mary Jones, associate professor of biology, and Britt Florkiewicz, assistant professor of psychology.
The course was piloted by Alison Koons, a biology major with a minor in animal behavior, who assisted Jones and Florkiewicz in testing the course with the zoo’s elephants. After extensive research on elephant biology and behavior, Koons weaved two mats out of firehose material to conceal food items, allowing the elephants to engage in natural foraging behaviors.
“Enrichment items like these mats provide animals with mental and physical stimulation, as well as choice and control over their activities,” Jones said in a press release. “Providing all captive animals with enrichment is crucial to maintaining their physical and psychological well-being.”
Florkiewicz said Lyon plans to offer the animal enrichment course again in the future with a full class of students. Students who take the class will have the opportunity to work with various animal species, including the elephants, monkeys, penguins, zebras and snakes.
“The Little Rock Zoo’s mission is to inspire people to value and conserve our natural world, so at our heart, we are a conservation learning institution,” Susan Altrui, Little Rock Zoo director, said in the release. “It can be no more fitting for us to partner with Lyon College to help guide these students in putting the principles they’ve learned into tangible reality. We are honored to take part in their education, and happy to be recipients of their hard work.”
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