Karin E. Jaffe

Karin E. Jaffe

Dec 22, 2015

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New Year, New Smart Feeder Update


Hello Smart Feeder Backers!

As 2015 comes to a close we wanted to share one more update on the Lemur Smart Feeder Project this year. Penny, Nicole and Kaysie will be finished collecting data on the enrichment phase of the project by the end of the year! Penny will spend the first quarter of 2016 analyzing the data and writing her master's thesis (yay!), and we will post the results of the project as soon as we have them.

We're thrilled to share that the feeders have been running and enriching the lemurs for three months with only minor issues. In late November, we had to replace the rechargeable batteries in 3 of the 8 feeders (an easy fix). Also in November, we discovered that other (uninvited) animals also appreciate the smart feeders and that squirrels (see photo, below) can climb inside of them. In the future, we will have to figure out how to keep squirrels out of the feeders, but right now we're focused on completing the data collection phase of the research project,

(Photo courtesy of MonkeyGirl2002)

Once again, thanks for your support this year. We look forward to sharing the results of our project with you in 2016!

--Karin, Penny & Darren

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About This Project

Low activity levels in captive animals are common because they don't have to search for food, unlike their wild counterparts. This may result in lower visitor interest in the animals and contribute to reduced interest in conservation efforts. We will address this issue by building and installing 'smart feeders' in the lemur enclosure at Oakland Zoo and studying how changes in food availability affect lemur activity levels and in turn how changes in activity affects zoo visitor interest.

Blast off!

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