SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Get out of the way, kids — this Easter egg hunt is just for zoo animals.
At Chile’s largest private zoo, several of the animal residents – meerkats, monkeys, lemurs and others – were looking for food packaged as Easter egg-themed snacks on Sunday.
The “Easter Egg Hunt” is an annual event at the Buinzu Zoo in Santiago, the country’s capital, designed to entertain visitors and stimulate natural food-hunting behavior in a variety of species.
Zookeepers place small bags decorated like Easter eggs but filled with meat in the enclosures of small cats, such as wild cats, who will jump up tree branches to get the treats.
A meerkat places a basket of eggs between some rocks in its enclosure. Monkeys and lemurs were given fruits hidden in brown paper bags decorated with the Year of the Rabbit.
“In nature, these animals spend most of their lives looking for food,” so the zoo hopes to recreate this behavior, said Ignacio Idalsoaga, the zoo’s director.
He added reassuringly that the treats and snacks were “not chocolate eggs,” but food the animals would eat in their natural habitat.
Idalsoaga said the annual event has been held for 16 years. This year, the sheep also had to search for food pellets in a colorful sphere with holes.
“Our creative team was very imaginative this year,” Idalsoaga said.
