The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo spends about $630,000 a year on food for its 2,000 animals, with food shipped in from all over the world.
Feeding time at the Cleveland ZooAnimals, just like people, adhere to different diets. Some are carnivores, only interested in meat, and others are herbivores that prefer fruits and vegetables. Insectivores eat insects, and omnivores check the “all of the above” option on the menu.
for its 2,000 animals, with food shipped in from all over the world. Fish can come from Norway and France, plants can come from right here in Cleveland, and the roughly 125,000 pounds of produce comes from all over the United States. Here’s a taste of the diet of some of the most popular fauna at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, as part of a three-part series exploring the animals’ diets and the expenses involved in placing those grocery orders.: Breaking down the food budget, from crickets and worms to fresh produce, a look at what the zoo buys and the costDozens of people are involved in making sure all the zoo residents are fed daily at the Cleveland Zoo. The diets of the animals are carefully controlled and monitored to keep the animals as healthy as possible. One of the tiger cubs tears open a paper bag revealing the bone inside.Commonly known carnivores include lions, tigers, and wolves, but there is a wide variety at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Carnivores also include reptiles like the Burmese python and the gharial, birds like vultures and roseate spoonbills, and some cuter mammals like otters and seals. Many of the carnivores rely on raw meat, including beef, horse, or chicken. Additionally, whole prey, rabbits, and mice are added to the mix to provide the necessary blend of muscle, bone, organs, fur, and skin in their diet. Whole prey is delivered to the zoo humanely euthanized and fresh, frozen immediately before delivery. No whole prey is fed to animals alive, an industry standard. The commissary will often use ground meat to provide supplements to the animals that they would get in the wild but not in human care. “Ground meat looks similar to the hamburger you get at the grocery store, but it has scientifically evaluated vitamins and minerals,” says Kelly Morgan, an animal keeper at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Felines like tigers and lions, for example, need taurine in their diet, an essential amino acid critical for normal vision, digestion, heart muscle function, and other health factors. These big cats usually get taurine from their prey in the wild, but it is a supplement in human care. For carnivores that eat fish, the regular rotation is herring, capelin, mackerel, and sardines, but supply depends on the fishing season and time of year. Sometimes, the quality of fish isn’t up to standard. In the past, capelin delivered near the end of the fishing season was mushy, forcing zoo officials to switch from one region to another or try different types of fish altogether. Carnivorous diets can also include hardboiled chicken eggs, insects, and seafood like crayfish, squid, clams, and mussels.Cleveland.com reporter Zach Smith feeds some lettuce to a giraffe at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.The vegetarians of the animal kingdom, herbivores cover all sorts of species. Herbivores can range from mammals like elephants and donkeys to reptiles like the tortoise and the iguana.kale, melons, corn, cucumber, mangos, and blueberries.twigs, and thorns, also known as browse. Some browse comes from Arizona and Florida, while others come from right within the state. “Our horticulture team on staff and the forestry team out in the Metroparks handle our trees that need manicuring or to be taken down,” says Morgan. They will bring large branches down to the zoo, and it will be dispersed amongst several species here in the zoo as part of their diets.” Fruits and vegetables are the bulk of the food the zoo orders for its animals, with yams, apples, carrots, romaine lettuce, green beans, hay, bananas, and endive making up 9 of the top 10 foods the zoo purchases by quantity. It’s easy to see why. Animals like gorillas and orangutans can easily consume up to 30 pounds of greens per day. The zoo also orders more than 3,000 cases of romaine lettuce a week during the summer, which visitors can purchase to hand feed the giraffes. But vegetarian animals can also be some of the pickiest animals. For instance, koalas only eat eucalyptus. But there’s more to it than that. “They don’t do the stems, just the tips, about the top several inches of each branch,” says Morgan. “That is the most tender and precious part of the plant, and in the wild, the koalas can go from branch to branch and be discriminative about eating only the most tender tips.”The anteater uses its tongue to get inside the avocado and eat it at the Cleveland Metroparks ZooWhile climate experts say people may have to start eating insects in the coming years, many animals have done it for as long as they have existed. The most well-known insectivore may be the giant anteater - it’s right in the name - and anyone who has had amphibians or reptiles as a pet knows that geckos and frogs also love their bugs. However, even some creepy crawlers, like tarantulas and assassin bugs, will eat insects. What kind of bugs are being eaten? The list includes mealworms, wax worms, superworms and earthworms. It means munching on crickets and bean beetles. Instead of swatting away fruit flies away from fruit, insectivores would rather they come just a bit closer. If it seems like the zoo would need to have a large volume of insects to feed all the animals, that’s because it is. So much so that they have to supplement some diets with a product plainly named Insectivore Diet, designed explicitly for animals like the giant anteater, which requires a larger quantity of insects than the zoo can provide on a regular basis. Additionally, it offers more vitamins, minerals, and protein the animals would otherwise have in the greater variety of insects found in the wild. It’s worth mentioning that some insectivores don’t necessarily just eat bugs. Insectivores will also eat some fruits. While the anteater can consume 35,000 ants a day, they also have a particular affection for avocados.David Petkiewicz, cleveland.com An omnivore eats what is closest to a human’s diet, but an animal doesn’t have to look remotely human to classify.Depending on the animal, diets can include eggs, meat, fish, insects, and produce. And just like any of the other diets, some of the animals get supplementary nutrition with their food. Some fish and primates receive what is known as a Gel Diet. Designed for each species’ nutritional needs, it’s a powder product mixed with water and set at a cold temperature, not unlike how a person would make a gelatin dessert like Jell-O. Once it sets, zookeepers will cut it into pieces to give to the animals.A gorilla munches on some of the food spread out by Brian Price, Animal Keeper at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.Animal diets are monitored and adjusted all the time, with each new piece of research tweaking diets and feeding patterns. “We have an epidemiologist on staff, and what she does is study health in populations,” says Jacqueline Gerling, director of communications for the Cleveland Metroparks. “Not only do we research diets and document that, but we also share that knowledge with everybody else in the industry.”Dr. Elena Less, an associate animal curator at the zoo, learned from her research that calorically dense products packed with vitamins and nutrients being given to gorillas. What was initially touted as a diet stabilizer was detrimental to gorillas, whose diet should have more fiber and vegetables similar to what a human should be eating. Animal diets are constantly monitored and changed based on a variety of factors. Are they young and growing, or are they aging out? Are they reproductive or pregnant? Are they injured or ill? These considerations require a collaborative effort between the veterinarian team, keepers, and curators. “What they’re doing is a mix of art and skill and science,” says Gerling. ”It takes a village, or more than a village. It takes the entire zoo working together.” Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
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