CASC Together Against Misinformation: Nutritional Science 🍎

As we continue marking #TogetherAgainstMisinformationWeek, we’re shifting our focus for today to explore Nutritional Science and the evidence-based approach we take each and every day when creating diets. Many of our guests wonder how we feed our animals. Some of the many questions we hear are, “They are just zoo animals, can’t you feed them slightly expired food? You must be able to get leftover food from restaurants to feed your animals?” With over 2500 mouths to feed it is no easy feat! When designing diets for the wide variety of species at the zoo we consider their natural history, foraging strategies, life stage, health, environment and even individual preferences, just to name a few. The Nutritionist team has a deep understanding of nutrient composition of foods as well as the technical skills to calculate energy requirements, macronutrients, vitamins and minerals for the animals under our care. But we don’t just walk away once we have designed a diet, we need to observe our animals’ behaviours and health markers so that adjustments can be made to meet each individual animal’s wellbeing, each and every day. Now back to the food! Did you know that most of the food we offer to the animals at your Toronto Zoo home is actually the same food you get from the grocery store? To add to this, most of our feeds are produced at facilities inspected by either the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Ontario Ministry of Agricultural and Food (OMAF), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and/or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This ensures that the quality of the food we offer to our animals is top notch. We also ensure that our food is safe by never offering expired foods. The risk of potential food borne pathogens is too high for us to offer to any species at risk or endangered animals. We always follow best practices to safeguard the safety of our food. We often have many passionate community members that would like to donate food, but we are critical of those donations to make sure they meet our safety requirements in the event they enter our food programs here at your Toronto Zoo. #ScienceMatters #GuardiansofWild