Sussex Zoo animals get a special delivery from Santa

Rather than toys and games, their presents contained all kinds of things to eat, like crickets, worms, oil, fish, beef, and vegetables.

The animals didn’t just appreciate the yummy snacks inside their gifts, presenting food in unusual ways also helps to keep their minds and bodies stimulated, and forms part of the daily enrichment activities at the Zoo.

Senior Keeper Jacinta Dawe said: “It made everyone here smile to see how much the animals enjoyed interacting with their gifts. While I’d rather not open a gift containing worms, or Spratts, these foods would have been top of our animal’s Christmas lists.

“Opening up their Christmas gifts formed part of this week’s enrichment programme for our animals, which is a daily activity we offer which presents food or exercise in a new way to help stimulate our animal’s problem-solving abilities and keep their minds and bodies active. This is a vital part of their care and why not use the excuse of the festive season to have a little fun at the same time? Watching the animals tear into the presents made us all even more excited for Christmas morning!”

Christmas morning at the Zoo is not quite the ‘presents in pyjamas’ affair it will be for many families, as keepers still have to carry our their normal daily routines. Although the Zoo will be closed to visitors, a small team of dedicated keepers will arrive before sunrise to make sure the Zoo’s 800 residents have been fed, cleaned, and watered just like any other day.

Jacinta continued: “Lots of people ask what Christmas Day is like at the Zoo, but it’s actually pretty much like any other day for us, except we might treat ourselves to some Christmas sandwiches. We still have to make sure everyone is happy and healthy so we’ll still be here in our wellies getting mucky, but we wouldn’t have it any other way – our animals are family to us so it’s like everyone else seeing their family on Christmas Day, except with slightly more mess.