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Andy Hartley - Scientific Officer

What do you feed rhinos?
Lots of grass. In winter they get quite a lot of hay, but hay is not as good for them as grass so we give them lots of additional food.

What would you feed a giraffe?
They have a long neck to reach the top leaves in the trees so we put their food high up to encourage them to behave like they would in the wild. We would really like to give them lots of leaves to eat but again, like the rhinos, we have to feed them lots of hay in winter, and because of this we have to be very craeful to make sure that they get all their proper dietary requirements. In the summer they get leaves and some other food as well. We can’t really give them too much fruit to eat because the sugars in the fruit ferment in their stomachs and makes their stomachs acidic, so they get a stomach ache!

When we feed the giraffes we put their food high up and also hide their food as an enrichment task for them. If you go and look in the giraffe enclosure you’ll see lots of bare branches hanging up, and these branches are all that’s left after the giraffes have stripped off all the leaves.

How would you go about designing a diet for a rhino?
Rhinos predominantly eat grass so we need to figure out how much energy they would require each day. We analyse hay and work out its energy content and then the rhinos get a concentrated energy pellet fed as a daily supplement to boost energy intake.

When are lions born?
All year round.

What do gorillas eat?
In the wild they eat lots and lots of leaves. They really like the new leaves/buds as they are really sweet and tasty. He trouble is they have to eat so many leaves so they spend hours every day eating leaves and resting, so at the zoo we have to find ways to give them enough to eat and keep them occupied to stop them getting bored.