Toronto Sun Behind the scenes: Part 2 - Toronto Zoo
Toronto Sun Behind the scenes: Part 2 - Toronto Zoo
Toronto Sun Behind the scenes: Part 2 - Toronto Zoo
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The <strong>Toronto</strong> <strong>Sun</strong> n Monday, april 30, 2012 NEWS 5<br />
Jealous of <strong>the</strong><br />
orangutan, a<br />
white-handed<br />
gibbon waits to<br />
get his own iPad.<br />
Wildlife nutritionist Karen Alexander, assistant Lisa Leneevin, and nutritionist Jaap Wensvoort exhibit one day of food<br />
for Samson, <strong>the</strong> grizzly bear who calls <strong>the</strong> <strong>Toronto</strong> <strong>Zoo</strong> home.<br />
Frozen Mice, rats, rabbits, Monkey<br />
chow, and 60,000 crickets a week<br />
Sumatran orangutan Ramai and daughter Jingga watch<br />
<strong>Toronto</strong> <strong>Zoo</strong> visitors watching <strong>the</strong>m.<br />
ley said.<br />
The zoo’s komodo has had<br />
problems with arthritis and<br />
<strong>the</strong> program is meant to keep<br />
him active.<br />
Sumatran tigers are good<br />
tree climbers and <strong>the</strong> zoo<br />
wants <strong>the</strong> public to know that.<br />
“We want him hunting for<br />
food so we put horse meat up<br />
in <strong>the</strong> trees so he will climb.<br />
When he is climbing he is<br />
using different muscles than<br />
when he is walking,” Presley<br />
said.<br />
“It is great entertainment<br />
for people and hopefully<br />
it will encourage <strong>the</strong>m<br />
to do research and learn how<br />
endangered <strong>the</strong>y are.”<br />
kevin.connor@sunmedia.ca<br />
The <strong>Toronto</strong> <strong>Zoo</strong> has <strong>the</strong><br />
biggest restaurant in <strong>the</strong><br />
world.<br />
<strong>Zoo</strong> workers serve up<br />
more than 500 different<br />
dishes each day to meet <strong>the</strong><br />
nutritional needs of 6,000<br />
animals.<br />
The meals include frozen<br />
rodents — mice, rats, and<br />
rabbits — monkey chow,<br />
canned goods and produce<br />
that can be bought in a grocery<br />
store. The zoo’s grocery<br />
bill is about $1 million<br />
a year.<br />
“Some of our fruits and<br />
vegetables don’t have <strong>the</strong><br />
same nutrients as <strong>the</strong> animals<br />
would get in <strong>the</strong> wild<br />
so we have to boost that. We<br />
need to put supplements<br />
into some things and things<br />
have to be removed from<br />
o<strong>the</strong>rs. This isn’t like my personal<br />
shopping list but everything<br />
here is fit for human<br />
consumption,” said nutritionist<br />
Karen Alexander.<br />
“We do a lot of quality<br />
control and things are prepared<br />
to our specifications.<br />
The animals get different<br />
food every day. Nuts, seeds,<br />
grains, fruits and vegetables.<br />
We use colourful<br />
things so <strong>the</strong> animals don’t<br />
get bored. A lot of animals<br />
are visual eaters.”<br />
Often, <strong>the</strong> meals are hidden<br />
in <strong>the</strong> animals’ pens<br />
so <strong>the</strong>y have to forage for it<br />
like <strong>the</strong>ir wild cousins.<br />
“They need to have<br />
something to do. A gorilla<br />
walking through <strong>the</strong> forest<br />
would pick things up looking<br />
for food,” Alexander<br />
said.<br />
Some animals need to<br />
have live food like crickets.<br />
In fact, <strong>the</strong> zoo goes<br />
through 60,000 crickets in<br />
a week.<br />
One of <strong>the</strong> most important<br />
staples is “browse” — a<br />
mixture of leaves, twigs,<br />
bark, buds and flowers.<br />
“We have a<br />
machine that can<br />
press <strong>the</strong> leaves so we<br />
can keep <strong>the</strong>m yearround.<br />
They need to be<br />
pressed so <strong>the</strong>re is no oxygen.<br />
With oxygen <strong>the</strong>y<br />
would rot and decay. We<br />
are <strong>the</strong> first zoo to do this<br />
and last year we planted<br />
10,000 trees for this. It gets<br />
us through <strong>the</strong> season,” said<br />
Jaap Wensvoort, <strong>the</strong> zoo’s<br />
head nutritionist.<br />
Feeding <strong>the</strong> animals also<br />
demands creativity.<br />
Polar bears are fed<br />
salmon instead of seals and<br />
carnivores feed on horse<br />
meat, which — unlike cow<br />
flesh available on <strong>the</strong><br />
market — does not<br />
come with added<br />
hormones.<br />
“We are constantly<br />
making<br />
observations as<br />
to what <strong>the</strong> animals<br />
need in <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
diet. They need<br />
a variety,”<br />
Alexander<br />
said.<br />
The most expensive animal<br />
to feed is a male gorilla<br />
because of <strong>the</strong> large quantities<br />
and variety he needs<br />
in his daily diet of 15 kg of<br />
fresh food.<br />
Next year, <strong>the</strong> pandas are<br />
coming to <strong>the</strong> zoo. They’ll<br />
need a pricey diet of fresh<br />
bamboo which will be<br />
flown into <strong>Toronto</strong>.<br />
“If we feed <strong>the</strong>m less<br />
than 85% of bamboo, <strong>the</strong>y<br />
will have health problems,”<br />
Wensvoort said.<br />
— Kevin<br />
torontosun.com/<br />
zoofeed