Animals enjoy their own Easter egg hunt

Some of our animals have taken part in their own Easter egg hunt and those clever enough to figure out how to break into their colourful eggs were rewarded with tasty treats.

The paper mache Easter eggs were made by the keepers and contained tasty food which the animals could smell and couldn’t resist exploring to see how to get inside. Provided as part of a behavioural enrichment programme, the eggs’ smells, textures, shapes and colours stimulated all of the animals’ senses and they were quick to investigate and reap their rewards.

Led by Drusilla, the dominant female in the Sulawesi crested macaque group, they took no time to work out how to get into their eggs and found their favourite food, including dates, seeds, grapes and mealworms, inside. The golden lion tamarins used their long fingers to break into their smaller eggs to find mealworms whilst the southern ground hornbills employed different tactics to get into theirs by using their impressive beaks to stab the eggs to break them apart.

“In the wild many animals, including Sulawesi crested macaques, are natural foragers and eat a wide variety of plants, insects and bird eggs. It was great to watch the animals respond to the paper mache eggs, which evoked strong natural responses and behaviours.” said Keeper Amanda Cameron, she added: "We give our animals interesting activities and new objects to investigate all year round. At Halloween the animals enjoy exploring odd shaped pumpkins and in January the animals find the unusual smells and textures from left over Christmas trees irresistible.”