In honor of National Zoo Keeper Week we went on the town to the world of animal caretakers at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.
Down to the gram, zoo keepers at the park make sure that animals like the 40-something Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth Harry get the exact amount of nutrition they need through the foods that closest resemble what they would eat in the wild.
Have you ever heard a sloth eat a green bean?
It’s slow.
And crunchy.
And it’s pretty rad.
Nothing but the best
Harry eats a diet fit for a king.
Seriously, a king or any human could enjoy his bounty of squash and cucumbers and sweet potatoes.
The caretakers serve the animals the same food that you can find in their restaurants. They meticulously cut, measure and feed animals like Harry and others throughout the park.
It’s just one part of a job they call a privilege.
Cupid on the Serengeti
Not so random segue: have you ever fed a giraffe?
There’s a giraffe on the park's Serengeti named Cupid.
She lopes right up to the keeper’s pickup truck and starts eating leaves off branches in the truck bed before they are even placed in her habitat.
Oh, and she and her long purple tongue are ALL about the romaine lettuce.
(In case you're wondering, Cupid got her name because the little horns on her head sort of curve toward one another, like a little heart. Awww.)
Bring the forest to the rhino
Another animal that will take a piece of sweet potato from your hands—Jody, the Black Rhino.
Jody is a natural grazer.
"She eats mostly leaves and branches in the wild, and here she can’t live in the forest," says Sean Ramsdell, part of the Rhino Keeper team. "So we try to bring the forest to her every day."
This part of the forest: Fuzzy Mulberry branches.
Busch Gardens grows this tree and others especially for the animals. They call the cuttings they bring in every day "browse."
"Jody’s a picky eater, it’s kind of one of her favorite types of browse," said Ramsdell.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of being a zoo keeper is the up close and personal contact with fascinating creatures, and sharing that fascination with others.
Busch Gardens hopes their programs, where you can get up-close with animals, be a Keeper for a day, or go on a safari, are all things that will help further the ideas of conservation, especially in young minds.
