Shoushan Zoo launches special animal meals during the Mid-Autumn Festival, combining festive imagery to improve animal welfare

Shoushan Zoo prepares special vegetable and fruit kebabs for porcupines. (provided by the zoo)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! Shoushan Zoo integrates festive elements into the daily lives of animals, and has introduced designs such as a jade rabbit making medicine scene, a toy hiding food in rice cakes, seasonal fruit and vegetable skewers, and a grapefruit cup. The porcupines happily gnaw on barbecued meats, the black bears happily bite open mung bean cakes, and the whole zoo happily "eats" the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Tourism Director Gao Minlin said that Shoushan Zoo continues to integrate animal welfare and education promotion into daily care, and provides animals with more opportunities to explore and choose through adjustments to food presentation methods, feeding difficulty and environmental design.

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This year's Mid-Autumn Festival combines folk tales and festive imagery, from the "Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine" scene to the food-hiding toys in cakes, allowing visitors to observe the animals enjoying festive food while also understanding the personalities and natural behaviors of different species.

According to the zoo, the "Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine" uses paper mulberry leaves, painted floating balls and wooden mortars to create the image of the Mid-Autumn Festival, allowing rabbits and dolphins to explore, chew tree bark and eat mulberry leaves in a festive environment.

Chimpanzees and black bears received specially-made "Pancake Hidden Food Toys". The nursery staff used a rice sieve as a container and hid grapefruits in it, allowing the animals to obtain food through grabbing, chewing, etc., making the feeding process more challenging.

The animals in the park also showed their unique "Mid-Autumn Festival eating methods". For the first time, the velvet mouse faced a laptop-shaped food bowl, eating the ingredients while looking at the barbecue set meal on the screen, as if he were "ordering online"; the porcupines "Little Taro" and "Slim Hanzai" enjoyed vegetable and fruit barbecue skewers together, but they settled on their favorite corn shoots early, showing their distinct food preferences.

The Kunakuni pig is immersed in eating cereals and concentrates, and is very devoted to the food in front of it; the macaw stands on a branch and carefully examines the special Mid-Autumn Festival food bowl, observing and exploring this festive surprise at its own pace.

The zoo reminds that a large number of tourists are expected during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. Parking spaces in the park are limited. People are advised to make more use of public transportation. For details, please visit the Shoushan Zoo Facebook fan group.

The velvet mouse looked curiously at the laptop-shaped food bowl. (provided by the zoo)

Kuni Kuni pig sniffing grapefruit cup and modeling pig. (provided by the zoo)

The chimpanzees need to disassemble the special mung bean in order to enjoy the grapefruit inside. (provided by the zoo)