We don’t just feed humans…… We feed animals too! Cumbria Zoo – May 2023

In January we started working with Cumbria Zoo in Dalton, supplying produce to feed both their hungry visitors aswell as the vast array of fantastic animal residents who are fed and looked after 24/7.  Lots of mouths to feed of all shapes and sizes!
In May, Sue, our Sales Manager visited the Zoo to meet the team, she was given a real insight into the “behind the scenes” operation, and saw how our fresh produce is prepared for the animals.

Sue met with Anna (baboon fan) - Operations Manager, Sam (red panda fan) - Marketing Manager and Kim (rhino fan) - Animal Manager, all who are long serving staff at the Zoo. Their enthusiasm to achieve the best visitor experience, and the welfare and conservation projects for their “residents” was wonderful to learn more about. 

There is so much going on behind the scenes to ensure their customers have the best time when visiting. The Zoo is popular for people all ages with their Education packages for groups, feeding experiences (which Sue highly recommends!) after having a close up chat with the giraffes, lemurs and kangaroos – it was great to see animals right across the park enjoying our fruit and veg!
Each animal group have different requirements and controlled diets, with firm favourites being beetroot, sweet potato, apples and swede.  They definitely get their 5 a day!

It was interesting to watch the Animal Kitchen Team hard at work cutting, chopping and mixing the produce.  Tons of fruit and veg prepared with love, mixed with other special feed where needed before being delivered by Kim and her team of 16 keepers to the different enclosures.  Even cut into different sized pieces depending on the size of the animal!

It was interesting to hear how the Zoo looked after their residents during Covid, and the challenges they faced when they had to close to the public.  They talked about the power of social media and how much people enjoyed watching their live videos online, the generosity of supermarkets / local donations and charities, in particular Fareshare, who specialise in the distribution of surplus food to frontline organisations.  This support ensured the animals were fed and cared for throughout this difficult time.

Please visit and support!
If you haven’t visited Cumbria Zoo before, it comes highly recommend this as a fabulous day out.  There are daily feeding experiences, animal adoption packages and a chance to learn more about the fantastic Dogs For Wildlife project in Africa, where the Zoo have trained and invested in 2 British dogs, Dan and Indy, to go South Africa and work in anti-poaching roles to protect endangered wildlife – how amazing is that!
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We are proud to support Cumbria Zoo, we asked Sue what her favourite animal was and this was a tough question to answer. She will certainly be back to visit again soon!
For more information & tickets visit www.southlakessafarizoo.com
Other useful links
www.dogs4wildlife.org / www.southlakessafarizoo.com/conservation-2