Every day, animals at the Akron Zoo hop, slither and slink by as onlookers observe with interest.
But what happens to the animals behind closed cages?
Zookeepers from the Akron Zoo gave kids an up-close and personal look at the process involved in caring for their animals at their “Just Zoo It” show Sunday afternoon at the Akron Civic Theatre.
The show featured live animals from the zoo to demonstrate the HELPER model that zookeepers follow to care for them. It stands for husbandry, enrichment, learning, play, exercise and relate.
The few hundred people in the audience got a chance to be helpers themselves in interactive games onstage that implemented skills learned throughout the show.
Anginae Buckner, 11, and Burton Buckner, 9, both from Uniontown, competed in a bit of sibling rivalry on the stage after they learned about husbandry, which involves providing basic care like food and hygiene to animals. The two raced against the clock to see who could gather food and perform clean-up tasks the quickest.
“I liked all of it,” said Anginae, who wants to learn more about zoology in high school. “We just wanted to see the animals and we thought it’d be cool.”
“I liked getting my stuffed animal,” Burton said as he held out a stuffed otter he won in the challenge.
Zookeepers elaborated on each of the six care points with a short video and demonstrations with birds, reptiles and even a porcupine.
On a regular basis, the zookeepers feed and care for animals in a way that allows them to use skills specific to their species. For example, they may hide food in toilet paper rolls and bury it in shredded paper for a red-tailed hawk to search for it and tear it up like it would in the wild.
The animals learn how to play and endure medical checkups through positive reinforcement with food. Todd Boerner, an education specialist at the zoo, said zookeepers also encourage regular play and exercise to keep the animals healthy.
At the end, Carrie Bassett, an education specialist at the zoo, hauled out a long boa snake for some brave volunteers to touch to demonstrate the importance of the animals’ relationship with not only the zookeepers, but also with zoo visitors.
“The relationship is so important in taking care of them,” said Autumn Russell, the zoo’s education director.
Russell said the zoo has held the annual show for the past five or six years to introduce animal education in a different venue.
“It’s a chance to see and learn about what we do,” Russell said. “We have fun.”
The experience was fun for many, especially the kids, like Jessica Vickers’ three daughters, niece and nephew, who all enjoyed seeing the animals in person after the show, too.
“They don’t want to learn nothing unless it’s fun,” Vickers said with a laugh.
Theresa Cottom can be reached at 330-996-3216 or tcottom@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @Theresa_Cottom .