3D printing helps meerkats imitate wild behavior

In the United States, the Cincinnati Botanical Garden and Zoo has partnered with GE Additive to use 3D printing on a project that could help certain animal species mimic wild behavior. Metal additive fabrication has played a key role in this initiative. The aim of the project was to create a feeder that would encourage meerkats to behave in a natural foraging situation. This way, the animals would be able to better develop their wild instincts, overcoming the challenges of life in captivity. But how can 3D technology influence the behavior of animal species?

The Cincinnati Zoo is home to more than 2,000 animals, and its main commitment is to provide impeccable care for each of them. David Orban, the zoo’s Excellence Manager, is responsible, along with his team, for documenting how the animals spend their days and interact with their environment. In particular, he focused on meerkats and on enhancing their natural instincts in captivity. Orban said, “We have come up with the idea of creating a more complex feeder that will extend the duration of foraging, in turn, extending the physical activity and mental stimulation of the animals, leading to more natural behavior“. One of the main challenges of this project was the communication between the teams, from engineer to zoologist and vice versa. The other was to help the Cincinnati Zoo team understand all the possibilities of 3D printing.

The aim of the project is to encourage the natural behavior of meerkats.

The zoo’s main request was that the animal enrichment device be functional and look natural within the environment. To do this, GE Additive engineers in Cincinnati gathered information from the caretakers and thought about how 3D printing could help solve this problem. After several meetings, the team of zookeepers and GE Additive engineers began to exchange design ideas for the new feeder. The advantage of additive manufacturing in this context is that it allows a design to integrate any type of shape, angle, structure or texture that is needed, whether it is metal or plastic.