Changing for the Better
Commissary staff are no strangers to modifying diets to
reflect contemporary animal wellness practices. We began
phasing crackers out of our giraffe feeding experience in
2015, replacing them with more wholesome, naturalistic
produce items.
Just as pigs were selectively bred from wild boars and
cattle from aurochs, the plants we eat are the products
of thousands of years of domestication. Popular fruits
like apples and grapes contain significantly higher levels
of sugar than their wild descendants; with this in mind,
we eliminated fruit from everyday primate and hoofstock
diets in 2016, reserving the sweet treats for special
occasions and training sessions.
Working for Their Meal
While our carnivores and omnivores have always been
provided nutritionally whole diets, they weren’t often fed
in ways that matched their methods of consumption in
their natural ranges. In 2016, we began “carcass feeding,”
which involves the presentation of meat items as they are
consumed by animals in their natural habitat—with bones,
ligaments, skin and fur intact.
For example, the commissary collaborates with law
enforcement agencies to collect deer killed by vehicles on
local highways. Before it is “served,” each carcass is frozen
for 30 days to kill off any pathogens that could otherwise
infect our animals, and the head is sent to a lab for
further examination.
Carcass feeding has been well-received by every
species to which we’ve offered it, and the keepers report
this feeding technique often triggers never-before-seen
natural behaviors.
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labs of meat and rodents are tied up for
the Komodo dragons to pull down with their
powerful neck muscles, just as they would
with deer and buffalo in their native range.
> Primarily scavengers , king vultures play an
important role in ecosystems by consuming
carcasses that could otherwise spread disease.
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arnivores aren’t the only ones who benefit
from natural feeding. In the Lands of Change
aviary, fruits are dangled on metal skewers
that hang like vines off a tree.
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