Animal Diaries Archive

Dingo Bonding

28 September 2007

Springtime is upon us, the days are getting longer, and it is getting hotter. All the animals are getting more playful as the days get longer and our resident dingoes are no exception to this. They especially like to play when we come in to put them to bed. They have been used to it being almost dark when they go to bed, but since its coming into summer, it is still quite light, and so they do not think its bed time.

With the girls being more active during the day we like give them things to do to keep their minds thinking, so they do not get bored. We call it enrichment, it just means we provide the dingoes things to do to amuse them and to keep their minds active and life fulfilled. We go in and bond with the girls at various times of the day also and this is often the best part of the day for both the dingoes and their keepers.

It is at this time of year that they are shedding their winter coats. In wintertime, the dingoes coat is very thick and almost woolly, which keeps them warm when it is cold. As it gets warmer the winter fur falls out so easily that we usually get a whole handful of fur after patting one of them. You can often see a trail of fur coming of them as they run past in the sun. Its quiet funny to see how much fur they actually do lose, but none of this goes to waste as most of the fur lost is then used as enrichment items for other species of animals in the zoo.

This means a lot of the bonding time is spent brushing the girls. They all enjoy being brushed, it allows us to bond with the girls, but it also allows us to check them thoroughly while we brush them all over. In a couple of weeks, they will have lost all of their winter fur and will have a thinner and sleeker summer coat.

Until next time - Dingoes Rule!