Animal art has certainly become a big seller for zoos and everyone (animal-wise) has to attend to the pumps. Chimp painters, mole rat painters, cockroach painters (‘Cockroach paintings can go for a high price. They art very popular.’), horses, elephants etc. The zoos may have recently ditched chimp tea parties as demeaning, but they’re jumping at the opportunity to have animals make art and to call the process ‘animal enrichment’. Of course they do. One animal enrichment expert Christine McKnight of the Minnesota Zoo even went so far as to suggest, ‘The animals enjoy it more if it taps into a natural behavior and if they use a part of the body that mirrors a skill set from the wild.’
So that’s pretty much that for animal artists. Then we were sent this link (thanks S) that is essentially about animal art (not). So, for the fourth time, that’s it.
Images: top, a leopard gecko, two cockroaches and a blind mole make art to raise money for zoos. Go them.
