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Stand by the Turkey Vulture cage for awhile and you'll hear a wide variety of comments. Many people are surprised at their appearance yet if you consider that in the wild, they clean up carcasses helping to eliminate outbreaks of deadly diseases their appearance makes more sense. Having a bare head prevents bits and pieces of dead animals from getting stuck in their feathers and results in a clean head. Yes, they eat dead animals. Unless you're a vegetarian you eat dead animals too. That cheeseburger you had the other day came from a cow.
You may see shoes, balls and other "stuff" in their cage. Imagine living in your dining room the rest of your life. You'd be pretty bored and want some "stuff" to keep you entertained. Animals are no different, and especially the animals here as they don't spend time foraging for food as they would in the wild. We call this stuff "enrichment" as it hopefully enriches their lives a little bit by providing them some mental and physical stimulation.
Raccoons have their food hidden throughout their cage. It's put in, under and around the items in their cage and sometimes even stashed in pipes with holes drilled in them. This is another form of enrichment. It mentally and physically stimulates them as they have to search for and sometimes work at getting to their food.
See if you can spot other signs of enrichment in both the indoor and outdoor cages. A good time to look is after Christmas. Donated live trees are put in the cages to provide something "new" to explore and smell.
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