Christmas for the Animals Event 2008 Date: Saturday, December 13, 2008 Time: 1:00pm-4:00pm Location: Peace River Refuge & Ranch 2545 Stoner Lane, Zolfo Springs, FL  33890 What does Christmas for the animals really mean? It's our annual tradition to celebrate the Holidays by providing our animals with Christmas-related goodies. We provide our animals with enrichment year-round, but during this season we add the Holiday-theme to the goodies we hand out to the animals. Zoo's and sanctuaries across the globe are coming to the realization that proper housing and medical care are not enough to ensure animal welfare in captivity. Enrichment programs for animals such as this event cause what is referred to as “good stress” for the animal and allows us to give the animals a break from the monotony of life in a cage. No matter how large the habitat, an animal still needs to encounter different situations as they would in the wild. Primates, for example, enjoy the stimulation of foraging for food, so we simulate this behavior in our enrichment techniques. Such behavior can be mimicked by stuffing treats or food into containers that challenge the animal to work to obtain the food before being able to enjoy it. Admission for this event is a minimum of a $10 donation per person (per adult or child). During the course of the event the public is educated on the plight of exotic animals in captivity and the habitats and behavior of their wild counterparts. To register for this event in advance, you may call us at 863-735-0804 or email us at RSVP@peaceriverrefuge.org. To see pictures of past years' events see below....
We start off by making the basic shapes for our paper mache' animals, basically we covered boxes with newspaper and then painted the boxes to resemble animals. Please note that it is very important to use materials that are non-toxic to animals. Please ask for advice before doing this yourself for the first time to understand safety precautions. This year we made, among other things, raccoon, deer, turtle and penguin. It was weeks of a labor of love.
	On the left: Boxes are covered with newspaper. On the right: Newspaper is then covered with animal-friendly paint. More of a behind the scenes tour of Santa's work shop. Our turtle is finished but we still have a lot of other animals to create. Once all the "animals" are finished openings are cut in the boxes so the meat can be stuffed inside of them on the day of the event.
	Before and after..... On the left: The Penguin before On the right: The Penguin after What a difference a day makes...
Last minute preparations for the deer....	Rabbit...	Raccoon....
Monkey Food	These are toilet paper rolls stuffed with fruit for the primates	Finally all items are loaded on the truck, ready to go! Santa's helpers are making last minute preparations.
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The Siberian Lynx didn't take but one second to figure out how to get into the box and to the food. They know what this is all about!!!	The others are quickly catching on!	Gotta love ripping up that paper!
On to our tigers: Blizzard and Zulu. Obviously Blizzard had no problem "beheading" the "Ostrich"!	Zulu likes to take his time and investigate exactly where the meat is and then going straight for it.	It's a deer but it tastes just like chicken!
Blizzard is still working on the Ostrich	Then again...let's try the deer.	Left-overs are always good
Our cougars are all in one big habitat and they all come running to check out the boxes.	There is plenty for everyone and they too, quickly figure out how to open their presents.	Of course, every year, one of the animals eats the meat with the box still around its head, this year it's a cougar, last year it was Blizzard.
In the end, all the hard work pays off...	Everyone gets their own present, some on their platforms...	Some prefer to knock it around and figure it out at ground level
The crowd moves on to our spider monkeys (we're under construction in this photo).	Our spider monkeys "giggled" at the sight of the goodies in the form of stocking stuffers.	Sitting down or hanging from the wire by their tail (this is why they are called spider monkeys), it's all good...
Easter, our black and white ruffed lemur enjoyed the "fruit"-rolls	While one of our brown lemurs enjoyed the flowers, little things do mean a lot.	Of course, sooner or later Easter caught on and finished off the flowers.
Finally, our capuchin monkeys all get a stocking stuffed with goodies	Caught on film! Just hanging in there really!	Largo is not sure what to do with the turkey.