Celebrating Valentine’s Day in the Ararat Ridge Zoo

At the Ararat Ridge Zoo, our zookeepers are always looking for new ways to “enrich” our animals. Enrichment is any object or activity that mentally or physically stimulates the animals. Presenting opportunities for play and exercise are very beneficial to their overall health.

Enrichment is also used to encourage an animal to replicate its natural behaviors or to create new ones. Items such as puzzle feeders, mirrors, bubbles, toys, papier-mâché, and painting are examples of enrichment our zookeepers provide our animals on a regular basis.

Holidays always inspire creative enrichment ideas, and for Valentine’s Day, our zookeepers themed their enrichment items accordingly for some extra fun! Check out how they are celebrating in the Ararat Ridge Zoo this year.

Heart Paintings

Painting is one of the enrichment activities our animals enjoy. This lovely heart painting was made from the hoof prints of Naarah the donkey.

Valentine’s Messages

Priscilla the hedgehog loves making Valentine’s Day cards. Check out her special Valentine’s Day messages to you!

Big Kisses

Our animals always enjoy getting smooches from our zookeepers! See Bocephus the camel, Japheth the llama, and Zacchaeus the zebra getting ready for kisses below.

Come visit the ever-expanding Ararat Ridge Zoo, which is located behind our life-size Noah’s Ark, to see and learn about these amazing animals. You can even ride a camel during select times of the year! If it’s too cold outside for your liking, you can see some of the animals on the second deck of the Ark during designated times.