A simple machine can be an easy way to hoist a toy to eye level if you have a ways to grow!
Play is as important for animals as it is for us, and zookeepers are always brainstorming new ways to help keep the animals under their care happy, healthy, and active.
One way that keepers do this is by using enrichment, which occurs when new scents, objects, or food are added to an animal’s living space to support their well-being.
The innovative zookeepers at the Great Plains Zoo & Delbridge Museum of Natural History in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, are always coming up with new ways to provide creative enrichment opportunities for their animals.
Recently, their giraffes got a new pulley that hoists up enrichment objects to keep them active and stay warm and cozy in their winter enclosure during the chilly months.
A pulley is a type of simple machine that makes lifting objects easier.
A pulley is made by looping a rope or chain over one or more wheels.
In the case of the giraffe’s pulley, it not only helps the zookeeper lift heavy objects, but it also helps them hoist the enrichment items all the way up to the eye level of the giraffes.
Did you know that with an average height of 14 to 18 feet, giraffes are the tallest mammals? A pulley is a perfect solution in helping keep these tall animals moving and grooving during the cold winter days.
Pulleys are also fun to explore in your own home. We’ve been playing along with them in our Maker Studio and invite you to give it a try! Keep reading for our Recipe for Play.
Collect the items from the suggested list below.
Though there may be a sizable difference between the giraffe’s enrichment pulley and the pulleys you build at home, the same physics concepts are taking place.
The more wheels that you have on a pulley, and the more times a string or rope is looped around them, the more you can lift. Pulleys also reverse the direction of your lifting force (when you pull down on the pulley, the weighted object moves up).
Simple machines are as beneficial to humans as they are for animals. Just ask the giraffes on your next visit to the Great Plains Zoo; they can’t seem to get enough of them!
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