Our Process

Painting is an enrichment activity for the animals. Our painting enrichment activity is a multi-sensory experience that engages the animals’ bodies and minds all at once.
They push their faces into the paint, swipe paws and tails through it, and roll on the canvases with their bodies. Traces of fur, holes from large teeth, paw prints and swipe marks become features of the paintings. The lioness Jala likes to chew on her paintings and often runs out of her studio carrying them and batting them around the pasture like toys. We are rarely able to retrieve any of one tigress’s paintings because she carries them into her pasture and tosses them into her pool

What is Enrichment? Behavioral enrichment is an animal husbandry principle that seeks to enhance the quality of captive animal care by identifying and providing the environmental stimuli necessary for optimal psychological and physiological well-being.

Laying canvases in an animal enclosure. We are a no-contact facility. Canvases are taped to enclosures while the cats are locked away so there is no physical encounters with the animals.

The Painting Process

The animals’ feeding enclosures are used for the painting process and thus become their “studios”. There is no physical interaction between the animals and our enrichment team members for safety reasons. When preparing the canvases and panels, the team members randomly squeeze different colors and patterns of paint as well as fragrance onto them, while the cats approach the fence and look on from the pasture in anticipation.

Applying paint on canvas while lions wait. Non-toxic paints are applied along with an array of scents to entice the animal. Some of the favorites are French Lavender and Obsession perfume.

Fragrance

An array of non-toxic fragrances are sprinkled over the applied paint to entice the animals. Favorites include French lavender, peppermint, citrus oils and catnip.