Lincoln Park Zoo

Just Like On The Playground
Bark chips provide a nice soft substrate for primate play and nesting. They also enable keepers to hide food, prompting scavenger hunts. Help us keep the exhibits fresh for the gorillas and chimpanzees.

Happy Feet
You won’t find them shoe shopping on Michigan Avenue, but some our older rockhopper penguins would benefit from cushy, neoprene booties to protect their feet.

Look—We’re Invisible!
Leafy camouflage fabric helps keep pygmy slow loris nest boxes hidden so the little primates can climb inside and feel secure.

Me Tarzan
Like Tarzan, howler monkeys, white-cheeked gibbons and other primates love to swing on vines! Help us make fresh, new vines for primate exhibits with these special vine-making kits.

Everyone Loves A Hammock
Keepers and volunteers have woven special hammocks for our primates out of sturdy fire hose (thanks for the donation firefighters!). Now we need to hang the hammocks within the exhibits just like vines in the tree canopies. Sets of nuts, bolts, washers and quick-links do the trick.

Work It!
Cap feeders have special holes through which Colobus and DeBrazza’s monkeys dig for food—working for their meals, just like they do in the wild. The process challenges nimble hands and stimulates minds.

Paper Is More Fun When It’s A Piñata
Lincoln Park Zoo gives its primates piñatas stuffed with produce for enrichment. Help our volunteers make new piñatas with these rolls of special paper.

Puzzle Master
Chimpanzees and gorillas use great intelligence and dexterous fingers to extract food from complicated puzzle feeders. Hung high off the ground, these feeders also require the great apes to grasp and hang while foraging, just as they do in the wild.

Great Nights Of Sleep For Great Apes
Gorillas and chimpanzees use wood wool to create cozy nests each night. Rested great apes are playful great apes. Good night gorilla.

Playing Never Tasted So Good!
Aardvarks are playful eaters, and this foraging ball is extra fun. When the zoo’s aardvark, Hoover, plays with this ball, healthy treats will be dispensed. Enriching and delicious!

Hot Hot Hot
Special wireless thermometers help us ensure reptile exhibits stay nice and warm without keepers having to slither in and check.

Carrots And Apples And Alfalfa, Oh My!
These sturdy food dispensers provide food and enrichment to domestic animals, which must work to retrieve the treats.

Snack On The Go
This small food ball is an efficient way to provide both nourishment and exercise to the deer, takin and other hoofed animals.

Eggxact Information
Precise data about eggs help zoo staff learn about what’s going on inside. This special caliper enables us to collect information to start getting to know chicks even before they hatch.

A Barrel Of Fun
Aardvarks love to nap in tight spaces, and this special plastic barrel provides the perfect confined spot for a snooze. The barrel is also a great place to hide Hoover’s enrichment items.

Is That A Takin In The Window?
Students learn better when they can see the teacher—even when the students are Sichuan takins. These seven-foot tall windows enable the big animals to fully view keepers during training sessions, while keeping everyone safe.

Road Trip!
When a pied tamarin or Geoffrey’s marmoset needs to travel (even if it’s just a trip across zoo grounds), there’s no better ride than this small mesh box. We train our primates to voluntarily enter such boxes, so they can cruise without hassle.

Look How Much I’ve Grown, Mom!
This special scale made just for eggs enables us to monitor egg weights and begin caring for our feathered friends before they hatch.

Peek-a-boo! I See You!
This egg-candler is the avian equivalent of an ultrasound machine. It helps us monitor developing chicks.

Never Ask A Warthog Its Weight
Warthogs, pumas and zebras need to be weighed periodically, but regular scales won’t work. This heavy-duty number lets us monitor the weight of our heavy-duty animals.

It Takes A Village
Sometimes, Mother Nature needs a hand. This incubator assists struggling newborn animals until they are able to thrive on their own.