Zoo animals served a Christmas banquet

The animals at the Cali Zoo, in southwestern Colombia, received their Christmas gifts on Friday: a banquet that made them activate their claws, feathers, beaks, and fangs.

It was an activity organized by the zoo’s animal welfare promoters so that the various species can enjoy special foods that are part of their diet, and that also activate their instincts.

Tapirs, spider monkeys, meerkats, and other animals enjoyed the protein-rich foods prepared by nutrition experts.

Zootechnician Laura Cubides Jiménez, coordinator of Animal Welfare at the zoo, told EFE that these activities allow animals to live new and safe experiences in their environment.

“Our professionals prepare food with ingredients that (animals) do not always have in their diet, but that they love, making them live a safe day in which they can awaken their curiosity,” said Cubides.

For the lions, the banquet was loaded with chicken prey; the eagles were given mice; to the spectacled bear, a cake with her favorite cereals; The lemurs ate fruit ice cream, and the deer ate seeds and fresh grass.

“Each preparation had the guarantee of experts who were meticulous when delivering the food, with an adequate balance of each ingredient, which allowed the animals to enjoy ‘delicacies’ such as insects, grapes, peanuts, essences and other elements. “rich for their well-being,” Mónica Vega, a volunteer in the zoo’s Nutrition area, told EFE.

They hid their gifts from several of the animals so that they could search for them with their sense of smell and activate their exploration instinct in their simulated habitat.

Visitors to the zoo also enjoyed it, who were able to see the show with the company of guides who explained the importance of taking care of natural resources and preserving the life of all species.