Zoo's big cats enjoy 'super-sized' meals!
When you visit Auckland Zoo next - you might see our carnivores enjoying a ‘super-sized’ meal!
To ensure the very best possible care for our big cats we provide them with large pieces of meat on the bone (portions or whole carcasses) to eat. This gives these animals the ability to express their highly adapted natural feeding behaviours – as they would in the wild.
As our carnivore team leader Lauren explains, “it really allows our big cats to use a lot of the musculoskeletal system that they have, especially in their heads and cheeks, for chewing and tearing meat off of bones. They’re also getting to use their carnassial teeth…which helps them to shear meat off of bone. It’s fantastic nutrition, sees them expending lots of energy physically and mentally, and for social animals like lions, otters and Tasmanian devils, greatly aids social dynamics.”
All of this meat (including chicken, mice, rats, rabbit, possum, wallaby, goat, horse, cow, and deer) and fish is sourced from approved pet food suppliers that are accredited and audited by the Ministry for Primary Industries and meet all health and safety protocols.
We believe this is an amazing educational opportunity for our wonderful visitors. We always provide advance notice of carcass feeding times via signage boards at the entry/exits to these habitats and our Zoo volunteers are also present to chat, answer questions, and explain the benefits of carcass feeding.
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