"zoo" news and stories

Bucking standard zoo practice, the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo is urging its visitors to please feed the animals.

The zoo has assembled a Christmas wish list of supermarket items for its residents, who are hoping to celebrate the holiday with Fruit Loops and animal crackers. Now it's up to generous zoo-goers to provide them.

General manager Kate Raymond says the zoo launched the program in 2002 because it "didn't have extra money to do anything special for the animals."

Raymond's daughter had the idea to erect an "angel tree" hung with souvenir ornaments, each featuring a picture of an animal and a list of what it wants for Christmas. This year, the monkeys are asking for pudding pops, the bears are angling for Vienna sausages and the lions are looking for roast beef.

(Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!)

Just like Nikki's blueberry-stuffed mushrooms, last night's episode of Top Chef was forgettable. We all guessed that Valerie would be sent home during the first three minutes of the show, when she received a disproportionate amount of airtime to discuss her friendship with competitor Stephanie. Why does the editing always give it away? (I know, I know: We get to know her and then feel sad when she leaves, yawn). So there weren't many surprises, but there's still plenty to discuss.

Late last year, a TV production company filmed a new reality program in England. Nine volunteers set up camp in the Paignton Zoo in Devon, next to the ape house and for 12 days, ate like the apes did. This meant that they consumed nearly 11 pounds of fruits and vegetables a day as part of a three-day rotating diet that was designed by a nutritionist. They also were given small amounts of honey and nuts, and during the second week ate some cooked fish.

On average, each of the participants lost 10 pounds and experienced significant reductions in blood pressure and cholesterol. The majority of the participants signed up because they were experiencing health concerns and needed to do something drastic in order to improve their health.

I realize that this is sort of old news, but I just heard about it and I found it intriguing. I'm also very curious if this will become one of the many reality TV shows exported to the United States. Americans are willing to try a variety of drastic measures to lose weight. Will eating like an ape be one of them?

photo by Marisa McClellan

In an experiment filed for BBC2, nine volunteers were moved in a tented enclosure at Paignton Zoo in Devon, England to live on an ape-like, hunter-gatherer type of diet for two weeks to see what effect a mostly raw, low saturated fat, plant-based diet would have on their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

The volunteers ranged in ages from 36-48 and they are up to 5kg of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and honey a day. Typical foods included: Broccoli, carrots, radishes,cabbage, tomatoes, watercress, strawberries, apricots, bananas, mangoes, melons, figs, plums and hazelnuts. Clearly the food was from all over the world and not just one region, but the meal plan did meet the daily nutritional and calorie requirements recommended for adults. Volunteers also drank water and, in the second week, were given "standard portions of cooked oily fish... a nod to a more hunter-gatherer lifestyle" of humans.

Volunteers did not report any loss of energy overall as a result of the diet, although there were "moments unhappiness and grumpiness" due to the living situation and there was a noticeable gas (farting) problem. Aside from that, the participants were in good spirits for most of the experiment and, to top it off, they experienced a number of health benefits. They lost an average of nearly 10 lbs, improved both their blood pressure from an average of 140/83 to 122/76 and decreased their cholesterol levels by 23%.

Source

There are some places where you can get bacon ice cream already, but how would you feel about ice cream made of frozen berries, meat and bones? Don't worry - this isn't a new flavor from Haagen Dazs or anything like that. This is a concoction being fed to some of the animals at the Zurich Zoo in Switzerland. Temperatures have been at record highs there this summer, and the zookeepers say that the "alternative ice cream" helps keep the animals comfortable and cool, not to mention that they seem to quite like the taste. The mix is being given to the big cats, apes and wolves. Hopefully they have something equally tasty (relatively speaking) for the zoo's other residents.

Source