Ever wonder what it takes to feed all the animals at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle? KING 5 Mornings got a rare opportunity to go into the places the public doesn't have access to get a behind-the-scenes look at the enormous undertaking to feed a thousand animals everyday.
The zoo goes through 3,000 pounds of food each day. The food is prepped inside the commissary, where everything is weighed, chopped and meticulously assembled for each animal.
"You think it's just an animal, just throw it some leaves, romaine, and it's done. But they are actually on a very strict diet," said Yul Haarhaus, one of the zoo’s animal nutritionists.
Animal nutritionists say the biggest challenge is to try to replicate the animal's natural diet. Some animals are picky eaters, like the wolves, so nutritionists have to get creative.
"To replicate their natural diet, get yams, cook them, cook carrots and get tomatoes, apples, bananas, blend it into a salsa, put them onto a special main wolf diet biscuits," said Haarhaus.
The zookeeper feeds many animals by hand to make sure each one gets the right amount of food that they need. We got the chance to feed the sloths a menu of cucumbers, grapes, sliced pears and special biscuits. The sloths don't have very good vision, so we were encouraged to squeeze a little food into their mouths so they could smell it before taking a bite.
In the wild, this meal might take a month to digest.
We also visited the Ambassador exhibit where we met Blueberry, a hornbill bird. Feeding her was a little less intimidating than feeding the sloths. But one thing was clear; the zookeepers are passionate about the animals they care for and are key in helping maintain the animals' health.
