Celebrating Heritage Day

This Heritage Day, our team decided to share that same spirit with our animals in a creative and enriching way. Armed with paper-maché, paint, and cardboard boxes, our volunteers crafted a “braai” set-up complete with fiery flames, a braai grid, and oversized tongs. Instead of steaks and boerewors, the grid was loaded with colourful fruit kebabs, and scattered with little bits of mince - deliciously tasty treats for our curious residents.

Ayla, our Red-Rumped Agouti, and Skye, our ever-watchful Slender-Tailed Meerkat, were the first to investigate this unusual new feature in their enclosure. Their cautious curiosity quickly turned into excitement as they sampled the feasts - straight from the grid!

Our troop of Squirrel Monkeys brought their typical mischievous energy, eager to snatch a skewer or two. Meanwhile, both our Ring-Tailed and Brown Lemurs enjoyed their own turn with the braai, nibbling happily while showing off their expressive personalities and amateur braai-skills.

Enrichment activities like these are more than playful experiments - they are essential for stimulating natural behaviours, providing variety in daily routines, and encouraging problem-solving. By giving our animals opportunities to explore and engage with novel objects, we promote both their mental and physical well-being.

While South Africans celebrated around real braai’s across the country, our wildlife family at the Ranch joined in with their own fruit-filled version - proving that whether human or animal, sharing food brings us all a little closer together!