Beijing Zoo has recently launched a campaign to make animals more physically active. They are welcoming advice and suggestions from citizens in this regard.

Two lions become physically active when they touch the ball with the smell of herbivorous animals thrown into the cage by zookeepers in the Beijing Zoo. The zoo has recently launched a campaign to make animals more physically active. They are welcoming advice and suggestions from citizens in this regard.

Lifting weights, jogging and watching one's waistline is not just for humans. In fact, fitness is now very much a part of proceedings at the Beijing Zoo, and we're not talking about the zookeepers.

Gorilla A Kou is jumping up and down and running around his territory searching for a banana hidden by the zookeepers. This activity helps him work up a good appetite for lunch, and it also helps him digest his food better.

It is always disappointing to see a sleepy tiger especially after you have waited in line to get a ticket to get into the famous zoo. To make the animals more energetic and satisfy visitors, Beijing Zoo has started a campaign to enhance overall welfare of the animals by providing appropriate physical, social, and environmental conditions and stimuli. Zhang Yizhuo, a zoo official in charge of the project explains.

"Through the program, we want to help the animals display their inherent, wild characteristics. It is good for visitors to see them moving around. More importantly, it's good for the animals themselves, both physically and psychologically, because in the wild, most of them have to move to hunt for food all the time."

In the newly-built Panda Hall, the eight "Olympic pandas" transported from Sichuan Province, now have to bother to pluck the bamboo branches out of the earth during mealtime. Meanwhile, they are provided with wooden toy trees, a mural, a swimming pool and a lot of new toys designed by staff at the zoo.

After trying several ways to get the animals to be more active, zookeepers invited innovative ideas from ordinary citizens. Many people called the zoo with their advice - some suggestions being impractical, but cute nevertheless.

"We can put a snake among the monkeys to scare them! The whole group of monkeys would jump furiously and it can help them exercise."

"We can feed predators with live chickens. Wouldn't that be cool?"

But zookeepers say it is forbidden to scare animals and provide live animals to predators.

"Animals such as rabbits or chickens are entitled to humane treatment too. It is disrespectful to let tigers prey on them. Plus, the entire process would be too bloody for children to see."

The director of the civil organization Friends of Animals Gao Xuan says their members have come up with some really good ideas.

"The zoo could set up electronic appliances that release wild noises and smells. Perhaps, some toys could be introduced to the animal cages as well. Once the animals notice these changes, they will be more active."

Keeping fit is not only a must for human beings, but also part of animal welfare in the zoo. Beijing Zoo welcomes ideas to help their animals keep active.

(CRI July 3, 2008)