LEGO Zoo #0007: Pig Petting Corral

I had this week's playset built over a week and a half ago, but I've been behind on photographing and posting it due to other obligations.  For this set we've moved over to the LEGO Petting Zoo for the first installment:  the pig petting corral.

Domestic pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) are omnivores that will feed on just about anything.  They tend to be social and seek out mud wallows in which to congregate and cool down their body temperature.  Hayley, who is making full use of the enclosure's mud wallow, is a Duroc pig, a very friendly breed that has distinctive reddish-brown skin:

Twiglet is a Guinea hog, a dark-colored breed with roots in west Africa:

Brickton is an American Yorkshire, one of the most common commercial breeds in the Midwestern US:

All three of these breeds originate in the United States, so their night-house is modeled in a classic American "red barn" style:

Barns like this usually have sliding doors rather than hinged doors, so I tried to match that mechanism in this playset.  It took some wrangling, but I was able to get both doors to slide smoothly, using parts from the LEGO Technic series:

Sliding doors are nice, but to really see the interior of the barn, it's easiest to remove the roof:

The inside is divided into two parts:  a staff area, and the main pen for the pigs.

Here you can find the pigs' feed and water trough.  While pigs will chow down on a lot of different things, they need to have a balanced diet of grains, grasses, and supplemental pellets.

The water trough can be refilled from the plumbing system that runs along one side of the barn:

The staff area contains additional tools, mostly for cleaning up after the pigs:

The two areas are separated by a gate that can be opened once the pigs have been moved out into the yard:

The keeper in charge of this area is Jason, who is currently busy moving fresh hay into the barn:

This enclosure has a few additional features, mainly because it's intended not just for animal display but for human contact as well.  Brightly-colored brushes hung along the fence can be used by visitors to brush animals and still keep their hands clean:

Many contact yards permit visitors to wander around freely inside the enclosures, which can sometimes be stressful for the animals on display.  This yard is modeled after the Once Upon a Farm area at the Memphis Zoo, which keeps visitors out of the enclosures and allows animals to freely approach the fence if they want to be petted.  This is a lot safer for people and a lot less stressful for animals.  Low fences allow visitors to easily reach in if an animal happens to be near the perimeter.  Here, Jim is lifting his daughter Anna so she can reach Brickton over the fence:

It looks as though the fence might not be quite low enough.

Animals and Minifigures:
pigs (3), Anna, Jim, Jason

Created with LEGO Digital Designer