Painting is fast becoming a popular method of enrichment in zoos. This thread is for discussion of animal paintings, and their use in enrichment. It can also be used for listing zoos that allow animals to paint, or about animal paintings you own. I would also like to hear about any photos of animal paintings in the ZooChat galleries. Currently I own two animal paintings. One is painted by Rollie, the Southern Three-Banded Armadillo at the NEW Zoo. I also have a painting done by a Fossa at the Racine Zoo. Here is a picture of a painting done by a sloth at the Milwaukee County Zoo: Sloth painting by birdsandbats posted 27 Jun 2018 at 10:59 AM
I have read that Gregor, the male striped hyaena that lived (lives?) at The Living Desert in California, has been given paint as enrichment with the resulting artworks then sold on. The Auction Network, which sells the paintings in affiliation with AZA, says that the hyaena has a particularly expressive style that he creates by 'throwing his whole body into the painting, using his feet, scent rolling on the painting and licking the canvas'. The hyaena's work was described as being 'bright and sunny, with lots of yellow squiggles'. At least one of his art pieces sold for $250.
London Zoo's chimpanzee “Congo" (who regularly appeared in the television programme “Zootime" presented by Desmond Morris) painted a number of pictures at the zoo during the mid 1950s; an exhibition of the chimp's paintings was held at The Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1957. Pablo Picasso acquired one of these paintings and proudly displayed it in his home. See the link below to watch Desmond Morris discussing the chimp’s artwork.
Somewhere I have a list of zoos that sell artwork done by animals. It's amazing how much the prices vary! Some charge < $50 for any species you want, some want $250+ for a 5x7 done by a common species. I own one, done by two cheetahs at Wildlife Safari in Oregon. I got to see it done in person, which was really neat. The male was supposed to be the artist, but he did one color and then got distracted by the hoofstock he could see in the distance. The keepers took the canvas into his sister's enclosure and had her finish it for me.
I saw my armadillo painting done, too. The paintings are about 10 times cooler when you see them done.
I do animal paintings with a majority of the animals that I work with. I have my rave's first painting hanging right by me.
The Connecticut AAZK has a bunch for sale - Animal Paintings GREAT prices, and the prices are the same no matter the species, so something by a tiger is the same as something by a chicken if the canvas is the same size. Note that they only take payment by Venmo. They're flat canvases and come with a sticker on the back that has the date completed, what # it was, and the animals that participated. Species currently listed: Alligators (feet and body) Amur Tiger Andean Bear & River Otter on the same canvas Ball Python Black Dragon Chickens Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman Ducks Eastern Box Turtle Flemish Giant hybrid (rabbit) Geoffroy's Tamarin Guinea Hogs Harbor Seal (paintbrush and nose prints) North American Porcupine Stingrays Striped Skunk They also have some stuff not posted! The CT AAZK is made up of Beardsley and the Maritime Aquarium, so when I sent in my purchase of 2 harbor seal pieces, I asked about maned wolves and giant anteaters. I was able to get their last maned wolf painting and a giant anteater paw print cast
I would like to see a painting done by an octopus. When challenges of painting underwater will be overcome (waterproof touchscreen? wax crayons?) this could be something.
In my experience, animal paintings are some of the best selling products at conservation auctions and in gift shops. Visitors seem to really love owning their own unique piece produced by a zoo animal, and all of the animals I have worked with that paint are eager participants in the sessions. Some of the species I have seen paintings done by include: Asian elephant, black, Indian, and Sumatran rhinoceros, Nile hippopotamus, giraffe, okapi, domestic goat, domestic Bactrian camel, western lowland gorilla, lion, Amur tiger, North American river otter, capybara, hyacinth macaw, kea, southern screamer, greater flamingo, little blue penguin, Komodo dragon, American alligator, sulcata tortoise, and Madagascar hissing cockroach, to name a few. I personally own paintings by an Asian elephant, two by a Sumatran rhinoceros, a Nile hippopotamus, a greater flamingo, a little blue penguin, and a kea.
@Kudu21 , do you remember who does it with okapi?? @Jurek7 , several places do it with stingrays so I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere does it with octopus. I can think of several different ways they could make it work, the trick is getting the animal to go along with it
Unfortunately, that ship has sailed... It is quite surreal to think that you own something created by an animal that you will likely never see again and that very well may not even exist at all for that much longer... They're definitely two of my favorite pieces.
Fundraising with this is common. The buttonwood park zoo made a lot of money auctioning animal paintings.
Back when Fresno still had Asian Elephants they had a behind the scenes elephant encounter where you got to tour the barn, participate in a training session, help feed the elephants, and afterward, you got a painting by one of the elephants. It was something like $65 to $75 for the whole thing and it was the only thing I asked for approaching 16th birthday..... I was so looking forward to it and then, of course only a few months before my birthday, they stopped the encounter altogether when one of the elephants passed away. Not much I could do.
Turtle Bay Exploration Park does paintings with a variety of their animals, including Raccoon (brush as well as feet), raven, Striped Skunk, Bobcat, tegu, and snakes. I think beaver may have been done as well. I know they have sold paintings before. I don't personally own any, but I have seen all of the above doing paintings and maybe one or two others that are slipping my mind!
I own three animal painting from Six Flags Discovery Kingdom: one by Valentine, an Asian elephant, another by an African penguin, and the third by Chewy, a Linnaeus's two-two sloth.
What they do is they attach a paintbrush to the end of a windy PVC pipe contraption with a feeder ball at the other end, and a keeper holds the canvas still on the other side, while the animals eat and push the pipe as they are trying to get food from the ball. Here's a video:
