Colombia wildlife park gives animals Christmas-themed enrichment

A former estate of drug lord Pablo Escobar, now a wildlife park in Colombia, has marked Christmas by setting animals festive feeding challenges designed to boost their mental and physical health.

Staff at Hacienda Nápoles, a theme park and conservation centre in Puerto Triunfo, introduced seasonal “environmental enrichment” activities for their animals on Thursday, replacing standard feeding routines with Christmas-themed tasks, park officials said.

Footage released by the park showed lions pulling at meat-filled parcels suspended from ropes, while tortoises and hippopotamuses ate vegetables arranged in festive shapes. Jaguars and pumas were given habitats decorated with Christmas trees and mock presents.

The activities are intended to stimulate natural behaviours rather than entertain visitors, according to the park’s biologists.

“Today we carried out different environmental enrichments for the animals, including pumas, jaguars, lions, monkeys, and others such as elephants and hippos,” said Mariana Cifuentes, a biologist at Hacienda Nápoles.

She said altering how food is presented encourages animals to use instincts such as searching, hunting and problem-solving.

“We focus on distracting them, encouraging them to show their natural behaviours like searching, hunting, agility and jumping,” Cifuentes said.

The practice is used regularly to prevent animals becoming accustomed to fixed routines and to reduce the risk of stress-related behaviours, she added.

The festive scenes contrast with the site’s origins. Hacienda Nápoles was built in the late 1970s by Pablo Escobar, who filled the estate with exotic animals smuggled into Colombia, including hippos that later became emblematic of the property.

After Escobar’s death in 1993 and the seizure of the estate by the Colombian state, the land fell into disrepair before being redeveloped as a family-oriented theme park and wildlife centre.

Today the park says it focuses on conservation and the care of animals rescued from illegal trafficking. Seasonal activities such as Christmas enrichment are used to underline that shift, Cifuentes said, while stressing that attention to animal welfare continues throughout the year.

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