Cat hunting games?

[Crimson]

Hey there,

I’m new here and I stumbled over this forum while searching about cat enclosures.
Now, while I didn’t find an answer yet, I might have found the right place to ask the questions.


I was wondering about enrichment for all kind of cats. The classic approach seems to be smell-related stuff, hiding treats in the enclosers or hanging meat on trees or posts.
Then you see sometimes toys like footballs in big cat enclosers, but they don’t seem to last long. And if you are very lucky, you can see live fish in a pond inside the enclosure.


And then there are actual hunting simulations – for example with an automatic winch to get a toy moving - but only for cheetahs.

And that’s the thing that irritates me to no end. Why only for cheetahs?

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great for them, but it seems easy enough to do it also for other cats?
Giving each big and small cat the opportunity to catch “moving prey” sounds like the most obvious approach to enrich their behaviour.
So why is it only a thing for cheetahs?

Or am I mistaken and there are zoos out there which do this on a regular basis with other cats?

 

[littleRedPanda]

I think it was as much to demonstrate the cheetahs' burst of speed as it was enrichment. My knowledge (which is extremely limited, as pointed out a short while ago by a self proclaimed primate expert) tells me that adult cats are lazy; if they do not chase the food on a winch, they know they will be able to collect it in their own time later the day.

 

[TinoPup]

A few places have a tug-of-war type thing, where guests can pull on a rope while a cat (that chooses to do so) can pull on the other end.
At Philly, part of the big cat 360 trail goes under the gorilla/gibbon 360 trail. On one of my visits a keeper was putting snacks in the gorilla one - carrots, peanut putter on stuff, etc. and a tiger was under her, stalking along. It was one of the neatest things I've ever seen.