Celebrating the Rosamond Gifford Zoo’s Diet Prep Volunteers
Part of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo’s daily operations include providing exceptional care to all our animal residents. One major factor of that exceptional care includes ensuring that every animal’s individual complete nutritional needs are met. This means designing (and, as needed, revising) their diets so that they contain all the necessary nutrients they need to thrive and creating diet schedules that best suit their unique physiologies. In addition to these baseline elements, diets also take into consideration individual animals’ unique preferences regarding taste, shape, and size of their food. Preparing daily food for 1145 animals spanning 225 species is no small feat, but it’s a task that has to be done.
Due to the specificity of the job, prepping diets can be extremely time-consuming for our animal care team. To help tackle this gargantuan work, a small group of dedicated individuals spend their Friday and Saturday mornings at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo to roll up their sleeves, grab their color-coded cutting boards, and prepare the diets for the small mammals, some of the carnivores, and even some of the birds at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo: the diet prep volunteers.
“It’s work I’d call ‘in the trenches,’” describes Chris Omolino, Event and Volunteer Coordinator of the Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. “It’s one of the more consistent needs for the zoo.” Diet prep volunteer shifts run every week, Fridays and Saturdays from 8am-12pm. During this time, up to four volunteers will arrive at the zoo before it opens to the public, make their way to the diet kitchen, and create diets for approximately 30 different species of mammals and 23 species of birds. Occasionally, the animal care team might make a special request for enrichment food items, too. “Having volunteers take on these duties is a tremendous asset for our animal care staff,” says Omolino. “The time they would’ve spent on prepping diets can instead go towards direct care with the animals.” When it comes to the animal care team’s busy schedules, saving time is always a good thing. Special circumstances, however, do arise that highlight the important impact diet prep volunteers make. “When [patas monkey half-sisters] Sisu and Mushu were born and needed to be bottle-fed around the clock,” Omolino describes, “it was crucial to free up as much time as possible so the Small Mammals team could provide intensive care.”
Tamara Singer, Collection Manager of Small Mammals and Primates at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, confirms the great impact that the diet prep volunteers have on her team. By having the volunteers prepare animal diets, we have more time to spend on training, husbandry, enrichment, and exhibit maintenance,” she says, “all of which drastically improve the welfare of our animals.”
Before joining the small-but-mighty ranks, diet prep volunteers receive specialized training in kitchen and food safety, sanitation methods, guidelines for zoological nutrition required by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), and other best practices for a successful kitchen shift. To avoid cross-contamination, for example, knives, cutting boards, and containers are color-coded based on which types of food are used with each item. Yellow is for fruit, green for vegetables, red for meat, and blue for fish. Additionally, diet prep volunteers are responsible for cleaning and sanitizing the area after they are finished working. Diet prep volunteers are beholden to the very same professional, regimented food safety rules we humans would expect to see in a restaurant kitchen.
Likewise, the food quality and types also resemble the standards of human food. “If we wouldn’t eat it, we don’t give it to them,” notes Jeffery Glose, who has been a diet prep volunteer for eight years. “It’s high-quality food. And what we do can get very involved, depending on the diet. But when it all comes together, it’s really a beautiful meal.” During preparation, the rainbow of fresh produce that lines the kitchen area, including zucchini, green beans, carrots, mango, and more, looks as though it was the pulled straight from the shelf of a grocery store. Even foods that wouldn’t necessarily be on a human menu (such as frozen rodents, whole fish, or meat carcasses) are treated with the same care and consideration. Before frozen meat is served to the animals, team members ensure that it is safely thawed. In addition to the produce and meat, recipes might also call for specialized grains or pellets to be included. Large containers of these foods are labelled and arranged underneath the counters for easy access, so as not to disrupt the smooth flow of work that the diet prep volunteers have developed together after years of working together.
Due to the consistent nature of the role, diet prep volunteers hone their specialized skills as they grow more familiar with the duties. After performing diet prep for the last decade, there is perhaps no one more familiar with this particular type of volunteer work than Janet Erardi. “It’s the best,” says Erardi. “I love coming here and I love working together as a team. We come here to help the animals, and that’s what we do.”
Moreover, like everything else at the zoo, the recipes change depending on the needs of the animals. The amount of food an animal needs is usually determined as a percentage of their body weight, which can fluctuate based on a variety of factors, whether that be growth as they mature, pregnancy, nursing offspring, or recovery from an injury. Some animals gain or lose weight in accordance with the season.
Diet recipes adapt to these changes, meaning that diet prep volunteers note those changes and adjust accordingly. “When diets change, we also get to learn why they change,” says Jeffery Glose. “It’s interesting. We get to know what’s going on with the animals through the food they get.” It’s vital for diets to adhere to the ever-changing recipes. The animals’ nutritional health depends on it.
One of the most surprising challenges that comes with diet prep work is the intricacy of each recipe. Animals that are of the same species still might require different diets. Many of the diet recipes require careful weighing and measurement so that each animal receives the exact amount of food they need. “It certainly keeps your mind active,” adds Marianne Glose as she explains the variety of metric and standard units of measurement that must be converted to ensure accuracy. Beyond the quantity of food, though, diet prep volunteers are also responsible for the condition of the food they prepare. After obtaining the proper type(s) of food and weighing the food accordingly, diet prep volunteers then get to peeling and chopping until the food reaches the desired shape and size for each animal. The instructions for the size of each piece can be quite intricate. Some animals, for instance, require their diets to be cut into pea-sized chunks, while others require larger pieces. It takes careful patience to turn a mountain of carrots and green beans into diets that are manageable for small mammals’ mouths and digestive systems.
Other times, an animal’s personal taste dictates the type and/or ratio of foods included in the diet. The group fondly recalls a North American river otter who exhibited a strong preference for meat over fish, which his diet subsequently reflected. Just like humans, animals simply like or dislike the taste of certain foods. To the best of the animal care team’s ability, those preferences are honored without compromising an animal’s nutritional needs. That might mean swapping out one fruit for another with similar nutrient density. Alternatively, that might mean infusing the diet recipe with a little bit of stealthy strategy. “[The animal care team] will leave notes asking for us to put the diets in a certain order, to encourage them to eat what they need to eat,” explains diet prep volunteer Marianne Glose. She offers an example, “Primate biscuits go on the bottom for the colobus monkeys.”
Even a food’s texture can be a concern. For instance, it’s not uncommon for a recipe to call for soaking, steaming, or softening the harder produce for older animals who do not have perfect dental health. Siamang apes Abe and Fatima, for example, are both over forty years old. To avoid health problems, harder food in their diet is softened. Softening their food makes it much easier for them to eat. Being able to tailor diets to each individual animal’s unique needs is a result of the animal care team’s detailed, consistent monitoring. The more they know about each animal, the better and more comprehensive their caretaking can be. In the wild, an animal who is unable to consume proper nutrition could become sick, possibly leading to their death. Here at the zoo, however, the animal care team notices when an animal might be struggling and finds a solution that accommodates an animal’s specific needs. The animal care team will communicate those accommodations to the diet prep volunteers, who then carefully follow those instructions. “The animal care team is always available to answer any questions or give assistance when needed,” describes Singer. “We appreciate the diet prep volunteers so much and want to make sure they have everything they need in order to be successful.”
“I peel bananas for primates,” diet prep volunteer Terri Spiegel reports through a laugh, listing some of the diet adaptations she has learned since having started as a diet prep volunteer last year. “And I cut grapes into quarters for tenrecs. Whatever the animals need, we do.” Her sentiment encapsulates exactly what it means to be diet prep volunteer.
Although these four volunteers take the work in stride, there are physical requirements that make the job difficult. Diet prep volunteers must be able to stand throughout their four-hour shift, to lift heavy products safely, to engage in repetitive motions (chopping, peeling, etc.), and to handle food products without feeling squeamish or shy about it. Unlike most other volunteer roles at the zoo, diet prep volunteers typically do not interact with guests beyond the occasion wave or smile when someone walks by the viewing window. Despite the challenges and lack of recognition, they say the reward is well worth the work. “You get deep appreciation for everything that has to happen for the animals here,” asserts Erardi. “And we play a part in making it happen. The [animal care team] are always telling us how grateful they are for our help.”
When asked which diets are their favorites to create, the team’s answers showcased the varied nature of the work: Jeffery’s favorite diet to create is for the Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths, Marianne’s the golden lion tamarins, and Erardi’s the Andean bear. Spiegel, on the other hand, selected the Damara mole rats as her favorite diet. “Even though they’re so small,” she explains, “they don’t need their food to be cut as small as you’d think. Their food size is the same as animals who are much larger.” Indeed, according to the binder of diet recipes the volunteers use, the Damara mole rat and Andean bear receive food cut to equal size. In essence, the Damara mole rat diet reflects the species’ special dental adaptations. Damara mole rats sport prominent incisor teeth that help them dig tunnels to live underground, defend their burrows, and, perhaps most importantly, chew their food. “Plus,” Spiegel adds, “Because of [that habitat design’s] windows, sometimes I can see the food they bring into the tunnels. I love to point it out to friends when they visit the zoo and to say, ‘I cut that yam!’”
Together, diet prep volunteers and the animal care team members work together to ensure that our animals receive the nutrition they need so they can experience the best quality of life. Diet prep volunteers may not have direct contact with animals, but they have a tangible and direct impact on animals’ quality of life.
Next time you visit the Rosamond Gifford Zoo on a Friday or Saturday between 8am-12pm, we encourage you to peer through the diet kitchen viewing window to see these culinary superstars in action. To all those who have prepped diets in the past or currently serve in this vital role, thank you for what you do.
Are you interested in volunteering with the Friends of the Zoo? Contact Event and Volunteer Coordinator Chris Omolino at [email protected] or (315) 435-8511x8528 to learn more about the exciting ways how you can help the zoo!
