ZSL #046 Feeding the Zoo: Nutrition for animals under managed care

Making sure that the animals held in ZSL’s two conservation zoos, London and Whipsnade, are fed a diet that can help them thrive is crucial, both for keeping them healthy under managed care, and ensuring they are in the best possible shape for a return to the wild. Amanda Ferguson is ZSL’s Diet Management Officer and is responsible for creating tailored diets for all the animals across both ZSL Zoos, from snails to elephants! We learn how to feed an animal for which there are no guidelines, why enriched feeding methods are so important, and why you’ll rarely see a monkey at London Zoo with a banana.

Overview

00:11     Harriet McAra, Host of Wild Science, Episode introduction

01:10     Interview with Amanda Ferguson

25:16     How does nutrition help us recover wild populations?

33:04     Outro and final reflections

Resources

• If there’s a topic you’d like to hear on a future podcast, or if you’d like to share your thoughts, email the ZSL Wild Science Podcast at: [email protected]
• Check out our science and conservation work at: www.zsl.org/Science or www.zsl.org/conservation
• The Evolution of Enrichment, a public event held at ZSL featuring a talk from Amanda Ferguson on how diet presentation can meet the behavioural needs of animals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hqrweox2UA
• Amanda Ferguson: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amanda-Ferguson-9
• Corncrake conservation: https://www.zsl.org/what-we-do/projects/conserving-native-birds
• Mountain chicken frog conservation: https://www.zsl.org/what-we-do/projects/mountain-chicken-frog-conservation
• Comparison of the nutritional content of the captive and wild diets of the critically endangered mountain chicken frog (Leptodactylus fallax) to improve its captive husbandry https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30221785/

Get in touch 

• Email [email protected] with your questions, comments, and thoughts for future episodes!
• Find us @ZSLScience on X or @zslofficial.bsky.social on BlueSky and use the hashtag #ZSLWildScience
• Follow us on Facebook @ZSLScienceAndConservation