Pampered zoo animals in the Swiss city of Zurich gobbled up 500 tonnes of fresh food prepared by a dedicated gourmet chef last year, including 21 tonnes of meat, 714 garlic bulbs and 11 135 kiwi fruit.
More traditional dishes were also on offer for the 4 000 animals, including about 155 tonnes of hay, nearly four tonnes of leeks and more than 30 tonnes of apples or carrots, zoo management said in a press release on Monday.
The Zurich menagerie displayed a definite sweet tooth, licking up 145 litres of maple and raspberry sirup, and 250 kilo-pots of honey.
About 6 000 tea bags helped with digestion and 20kg of popcorn filled the gaps.
The chief glutton of 2005 was Maxi the male elephant, who ploughed through 150kg of food a day.
At the other end of the animal kingdom, a small South American frog — Dendrobates reticulatus est — snapped up just two or three vinegar flies a day.
However, that serving was not as elaborate as other delicacies conjured up by zoo chef Andre Schatz and his team, which were then strategically placed to give animals the task of finding their meal.
The spectacled bears had to climb a tree to find their raspberry syrup, and Zurich’s elephants were obliged to crack open their coconuts with their feet, so they did not lose some of their natural instincts.
The zoo’s solitary anteater did not get its ants on a plate, but instead spent several hours a day licking its way to them through a hollow tree trunk.
Zoo authorities said they will ensure that their animals have a balanced cuisine but they will be put on a diet if they overindulge in the gourmet goods. — AFP