A unique donation has kept animals happy at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

Aspen Shumpert

Charlotte the muskox at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium gained a new enrichment tool from a local donation.

In May, Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One donated more than a dozen expired fire hoses to the zoo for use by the animals.

Old fire hoses that were donated to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium by the Gig Harbor Fire Department are stored away until staff can turn them into enrichment devices for the animals at the zoo in Tacoma, Wash. on Oct. 3, 2022. The enrichment devices, such as braided browse feeders and hammocks, help challenge the animals and add variation to their daily lives.

“Animal enrichment is the process of providing animals in human care with some form of stimulation in order to encourage natural behaviors that they would display in the wild,“ Tessa Miller, media relations & communications coordinator at the zoo told the Gateway.

Enrichment can help improve or maintain animals physical and mental health, Miller said.

The zoo’s animal enrichment committee meets monthly and includes staff biologists who determine the best use of different enrichment items, Miller said.

“Even though the fire department can’t use the hoses anymore, they are still really strong and durable for us to create something with,” Russell Pharr, Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium staff biologist, told the Gateway.

Animals can play with scents (hiding treats inside the hose), experience different textures (braided hose line to rub against or drag around), and stimulation options that might replace activities found in the wild.

“We try to give them different things, like they would have out in the wild, that challenges them to figure out food or items to play with,” Pharr said.

Suki the elephant loves to rub against and play with the braided hose when she’s not searching for hidden food inside it. Otters and lynxes lounge around in hose braided hammocks.

“When Jasper, the lynx, is shedding his winter coat, the fire hose hammock looks very fuzzy from all of his loose fur,” Miller said.

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium staff biologist Russell Pharr places willow branches into a braided browse feeder, that is made from old fire hoses that were donated by the Gig Harbor Fire Department, for Charlotte the Muskox to eat later, at the zoo in Tacoma, Wash. on Oct. 3, 2022. The donation of fire hoses will be turned into enrichment devices for many of the animals to help challenge them and add variation to their daily lives.

Even though enrichment items might seem playful and fun, they are not toys.

“We are careful not to use the word toys, as these items are much more — and are a vital part of providing high-quality animal care,” Miller said.

Other local fire departments have donated fire hoses to the zoo for many years. The donation in May was the first time Gig Harbor Fire donated hoses to the zoo.

With Gig Harbor Fire’s donation, biologists upgraded a browse feeder for Charlotte the muskox. She now has a braided browse feeder made out of the expired fire hoses.

A browse feeder is what the zookeepers stick tree branches in for animals to eat from.

“That’s fun because the muskox really like willow boughs, so they’ll eat the leaves and the bark off of it.” Pharr said.

Charlotte the Muskox eats willow branches from a braided browse feeder that is made from old fire hoses that were donated by the Gig Harbor Fire Department in her habitat at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Wash. on Oct. 3, 2022. The donation of fire hoses will be turned into enrichment devices for many of the animals to help challenge them and add variation to their daily lives.

Fire hoses at the department go through a “hose testing” process.

“If the hose fails, it’s deemed unusable and available to be recycled or donated,” Tina Curran, prevention specialist at Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One told the Gateway.

When the department realized it had a surplus of expired hoses, it reached out to Hose2Habitat. The nonprofit helps locate expired fire hoses from local fire departments for local zoos to use.

The creators of Hose2Habitat volunteered together at the same fire department in Maryland, where they saw dumpsters of expired fire hose taken to landfills. They believed there was an alternative way the expired hoses could be used and thought it could possibly be at their local zoo, according to their website.

Now the organization connects fire departments and zoos around the world.

Hose2Habitat is “the only nonprofit organization in the world whose mission is to improve the physical and psychological well-being of wild animals in human care by providing and enhancing enrichment for those animals through the donation of recycled and other materials, workshops, and other services,” according to the nonprofit’s website.

“Hose2Habitat are 100% volunteer and their enrichment materials, workshops, and other services are free to keepers and animal care facilities so that cost to a facility doesn’t prevent benefit to the animals,” according to its website.

The zoo does not accept drop-off donations from the general public, but people can help by donating to The Zoo Society, a nonprofit fundraising organization whose purpose is to lend financial support to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.

When donating, the public can choose their donation to go toward the “enrichment” fund.

The enrichment fund allows the zoo to provide materials to keep the animals and staff happy, according to the zoo’s website said.

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