2024-02-19 05:04:26
Vegan nut milk soup, beetroot and apples are given to the bear bears
Banana cake, rosehip tea with honey or a special vegan soup with nut milk and beetroot. These are just some of the delicacies with which the employees of the Sofia Zoo pamper the animals.
Their menu is taken care of by a whole team of chefs, and often the list of the day is like in a real gourmet restaurant. The menu is individual and depends on the season, weight, health status and age are also considered. If the animal has gained weight or is sick, it is immediately put on a special diet.
During the cold months, monkeys Alf and Bruno like to drink tea just like humans. They prepare it for them with freshly picked rosehips from the zoo, sweeten it with honey and serve it to them like small children – not hot, but warm. In the summer, they also like to eat organic ice cream on a stick made of pureed fruits and vegetables. Because of the folic acid, the monkeys have to eat a lot of foliage in the winter.
The specialties at the zoo don’t end there – there are also birthday cakes for the animals. These were recently given to the beloved monkeys Alf and Bruno, who turned 3 and 8 years old. A
cakes are a real culinary delight and are made from banana pulp, baby puree, various dried fruits – kiwi, apricots, strawberries, coconut,
buckwheat flour, raisins, raw nuts and honey for sweetener. They can even be eaten by humans.
“We have very enthusiastic young people who have amazing culinary abilities. Amazing cakes are made with what they have from the kitchen and what the monkeys have to eat,” Anita Tsvetanova told “24 Chasa”. She has been in charge of the menus for seven years and oversees the organization of deliveries and receiving the products. Other animals have also received cakes, including grizzly bears and elephants.
“These are animals that can feel the difference with any other day. They take it as something special”, she further explained.
The animals are mostly fed with fresh food, which is issued from the kitchen, but often due to their health condition, they must also prepare special food. In 8 special silos, each with a capacity of 5-8 tons, different types of grain are stored – oats, wheat, barley, sunflower, corn, millet, which are mixed.
It is also strictly monitored whether the monkeys have taken enough vitamin D3, if special granules are not added to them. Winter is sunnier, which is good for the sun vitamin, which some species of monkeys must necessarily synthesize all year round, otherwise metabolic and other diseases occur, explains Tsvetanova.
The fluffy bears Liam and Shreya, who are like Baloo from the “Jungle Book”, also require special care. Of the approximately 700 zoos in Europe, there are polar bears in only ten. In nature, the brown bear lives in the forests of the Indian subcontinent, it is one of the few bears that does not hibernate and originates from the Himalayan region and eats only plants and insects.
Their menu consists of fresh fruits and vegetables and termites, like for them in the zoo
they grow mealworms “That’s why they are called bear bears – their snouts protrude forward, they have special devices with which they close their nostrils when they dig up the termite nest with their big claws. They stick their snouts in and start sucking the termites from inside like a vacuum cleaner. Then the nostrils are closed with a zipper so that termites do not enter the nose”, explains Tsvetanova.
The problem is that grizzly bears have very sensitive stomachs. And over the years, they have had health problems because of unreasonable visitors who even throw kebabs and meatballs at them. And right now Liam is on special mode because she recently had a crisis. His favorite soup is now completely vegan, because fresh milk has been replaced with pureed oatmeal, which has been soaked the day before. Red beet is also added, which is a natural antibiotic and a superfood for stomach ailments. And to make it tasty, we add bran, peppers, carrots and apples, which are pureed. “Their metabolism is much different from ours.
If a small child can eat a kebab or a packet of salads without being harmed, it is life-threatening for a bear.”
says Tsvetanova. It is for this reason that zoos urge visitors not to feed the animals, otherwise bile disorders, pancreatitis and cholecystitis occur. Again, in order not to disturb their comfort, it is forbidden to move around with wheels and scooters.
In winter, the food of herbivores, giants – elephants, rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses, as well as some types of birds is increased, and vitamins are added to it. One of the newest residents –
the elephants Frosya and Louisa, on the other hand, swallow about 100 kg of food per day
The two have been friends for over 35 years and arrived in Sofia from Augsburg, Germany, after Artaida’s death in 2021. Luisa is also the oldest animal at the zoo – she is 55 years old, but in very good health. Elephants are herbivores and eat branches, roots and hay, and in winter special fodder and pellets.
The keepers gather the natural foods from the area around the park, and the specialized ones are prepared in the zoo’s kitchen. Due to the large quantities, the process takes almost the entire time, with the food being carried by electric carts to their cage.
The two elephants have been with us for 5 months and have started to feel good in their new home. We had two visits from colleagues from Germany to see their physical and emotional experience. They are constantly renovating their new home and what they managed to do, they dismantled from their inner enclosure – metal sheets, tore off some feeders with huge anchor bolts, ropes and arrangements, but we then go after them, repair and improve their home”, said the zoo chief. They also have new caretakers who share that
the two elephants are polyglots and already execute commands not only in German and English, but also in Bulgarian
In addition to surprises for the animals, there are also challenges in feeding – the so-called environmental enrichment with feeders. The two elephants are also given branches to brush their teeth with. In addition, to have fun, different types of toys are made so that they can be kept in shape.
He eats everything with milk still the smallest inhabitant of the zoo – the baby atanaska bison,
who was born on January 18. The father of the baby – the American bison Krum, arrived in Sofia from Blagoevgrad. The baby season of the herbivores starts in March-April, but the bisons pleasantly surprised us, the head of the zoo also said.
The idea of zoos is not so much in the entertainment and exhibition part for visitors, which is absolutely not neglected, but to become centers for the reproduction and reintroduction of wild animals and endangered species, explained Tsvetanova. Therefore, the capital zoo participates in programs with world and European zoos, with which they exchange endangered animals for the purpose of breeding. In some cases, species exist almost exclusively in zoos and very little in the wild. The goal of the program is to research the gene pool of the species, see which ones are compatible, make exchanges between them to reproduce and return to the wild. Sofia participates with 8-9 species, among them are the brown bears, which the zoo hopes will also reproduce. There are also successful examples of animals returned to nature – ibex and ibex already in the wild, Egyptian vultures. Experience with other species of large birds of prey is pending.
Fortunately, sudden changes in temperature do not torment the animals. On sunny winter days, when it’s not too cold, all the doors are open so they can decide for themselves whether to bask in the sun or hide in the shade indoors, where the temperatures are almost constant – the difference is 10 -15 degrees between summer and winter.
