Enriching visit for Mazda competition winners - Owairoa Primary School!

The incredible winners of our recent Mazda NZ schools competition, Room NB3 from Owairoa Primary School, visited the Zoo last week.

These ākonga (students) received an amazing conservation learning session from our educators, where they learnt about how we care for the animals at the Zoo. As part of their session, they were able to create behavioural enrichment for Asian elephant Burma. Using cut logs the students pushed pureed coconut, apple and other fruits inside the cracks and crevices, so Burma could use her trunk to get to the tasty morsels.

These budding conservationists absolutely loved their visit to the Zoo. Willow Taylor (year 4) said, “I enjoyed making a Bryde's whale sculpture of a mum and baby. I also enjoyed being out [with] the wildlife. Feeding the Asian elephant by hand was amazing. It was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

We’d like to thank all of the kura and schools who entered – please stay tuned for next year’s competition announcement.