Build Week 18: Working to Improve the Lives of Animals in Captivity
It’s Thursday afternoon, and Build Week 18 starts with a call to action. Kenya Bostic, a certified veterinary technician and an animal enrichment expert from The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado, calls in via Zoom to teach us about why animals in captivity so sorely need enriched environments that replicate the cognitive and physical challenges they would experience in the wild. She asks us: “How could you support animals in your community in this way?” We’ll answer the call across the course of the next week, as we build enrichment items for animals who need them at Austin Nature and Science Center, a haven in Zilker Park for a small group of native Texas animals who are disabled or otherwise unsuited to life in the wild. This Build Week has the distinction of being one of only a handful that we’ve undertaken as a second iteration, with the first (Build Week 9, described in this post) taking place back when our current 8th graders were 2nd graders!
On Monday morning, we brave a rare downpour to walk through our neighborhood to the city bus stop. We file aboard the buses for our expedition to ANSC, where we will meet our animals in person to observe their behavior and see the setting of their enclosures. Once there, we hear from Christina Burkovich, the Wildlife Exhibit Coordinator at ANSC, and visit our clients: a bobcat, raven, porcupines, vultures, roadrunner, box turtles, ducks and pigeons.
Back at Long-View on Monday afternoon, our teams leap into researching and designing, with an eye toward presenting their proposal to our Enrichment Review Board by the next morning. First teams explored curated resources to understand the natural behaviors of the wild relatives of their animal clients. Then, with an eye on one particular desired behavior, teams began sketching, iterating, and putting together the requirements for a complete proposal. Snippets of conversation point toward the collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and engaged communication we always hope that Build Week will elicit:
“Here, explain this thing to me, I’m kind of confused,” says Simon to his team, as he points to the diagram on their whiteboard.
“…and then we’ll work on the crocheting,” says Abby. “Wait,” interjects Nefeli. “Should we make a list?”
“Can people work on their pitch while I draw?” asks Avienne, urgently. Meanwhile, Henry and Quynh page through the proposal, checking that each step is done.
“Hmm, the nails or screws could scratch the porcupine, so we should write that down on the safety assessment,” says Henry.
By the time that all proposals have been submitted by lunchtime on Tuesday, Long-View’s builders have designed a group of sixteen enrichment items, including a seesaw-style “food launcher” for a curious bobcat, a maze and a climbing den for the porcupines, a hammock woven from repurposed fire hose (again for the bobcat), and a remarkable range of other projects. The rest of Tuesday and Wednesday pass in a blur of “yes, and” conversations, pencils scratching on graph paper, trips downstairs to the “Squawk N’ Roar Materials Store” (Long-View’s makerspace stock, available for use during Build Week), whiteboards being inscribed and erased again and again, and ultimately the buzz of chop saws, sanders and drills all busily putting the pieces of the groups’ designs together in the “Safety Zone” on the porch outside.
One group–working on a simulated carcass for the vultures–has taken on the arduous challenge of chipping a divot out of a fresh-cut hackberry log, a task that requires hours of chisel work by hand. Others encounter unexpected roadblocks in the form of nails that just won’t get driven in, boards cut at an angle that turns out to be all wrong for their design, or screws sticking out in a way that might harm the intended client. These obstacles give us opportunities to practice new skills, though. The nails get pulled out, the structures reimagined, the screws realigned for safety.
Now it’s Thursday again–our final day!–and the atmosphere is half “Santa’s workshop,” half balloon volleyball party. In the parking lot, adjacent to the patio and porch where builds are still buzzing toward the finish line, a group of builders on brain break are batting around a balloon they borrowed from the papier mache station, a tent in the middle of the parking lot that’s blasting cheery tunes to boost our spirits for this final push. “Lucinda wins Build Week! She was trying to blow up a balloon for like, an hour, and she finally got it,” exclaims Mrs. Morgan. In a Build Week, we all have space to try out new things, big and small.
As groups place the finishing touches on their enrichment items for their animal clients during the final afternoon, we set up for a gallery walk. Each team’s work is proudly displayed with its label describing the target behavior and function of the enrichment, ready to be carted over to ANSC and given to our “clients.” We ooh and aah over everyone’s work, and then meet up in smaller groups to reflect on our Build Week, as well as a few things we’re grateful for as we head into Thanksgiving break. Nalin says it best: “I’m grateful that we had a chance to build these enrichments for animals that really need them. That felt good.”
