Live well for less! Sainsbury's helps feed elephants and bears at the zoo

If you ever wondered how a zoo full of elephants, rhinos, giraffes, lions, tigers and bears shops for food (..and manages to afford the weekly bill!), this week's news from Noah's Ark may help shed light on this important side of zoo life... We're delighted to have partnered with Sainsbury's (Portishead) this month and our animals are enjoying the fruits of the new link already... literally. We're very grateful to the supermarket giant as they have kindly agreed to make weekly deliveries of leftover fruit, veg and other foods which our Keepers can now use in our mammoth dietary plan for the ark-full of animals we need to feed each day.

Already working with Bristol Fruit Market and other local animal feed suppliers, a zoo the size of Noah's Ark needs a significant quantity of food - particularly groceries for our vegetarian and omnivorous furry friends, of which there are many! African elephants, Spectacled bears, giraffes, lemurs, gibbons, tapirs, mara, capybara (to name but a few) all eat fruit and veg by the crate; and our Keepers probably spend up to 50% of their working day preparing and feeding it to their hungry charges. As an example of just how much eating some of our animals do - check out these stats for our African elephants... An adult Elephant can eat over 100 kgs EVERY DAY. Our two friendly Elephants Janu and M'Changa are still growing and currently eat 60-80 kgs a day or more. Wow that's a lot of food to prepare. We were pleased to show staff from Sainsbury's in Portishead (North Somerset) around the zoo this week and they enjoyed meeting some of our impressive residents including the elephants and bears. They even got to feed our two bear brothers Tupa and Sonco who joined us recently from Frankfurt Zoo, the lucky people.

Food preparation and dietary planning is just one of the tasks our lovely Keepers do each day. As part of a busy day which starts early and finishes when the animals have gone to bed, our dedicated team do all kinds of enrichment, medical checks and cleaning jobs to make sure every day at Noah's Ark is a pleasant one for the animals in their care. Have you ever thought what life is like as a Zoo Keeper? Well, if you want to shadow a Zoo Keeper first-hand rather than read about it, why not do just that and book yourself onto a Keeper Experience? A once-in-a-lifetime chance to get close to incredible animals like rhinos, giraffes, elephants, bears and big cats you'll spend the morning carrying out the same tasks our Keepers do, so roll up your sleeves and get involved! They make a perfect gift for family, friends... or a cheeky gift for yourself. If you haven't visited Noah's Ark before and haven't met our friendly animals and staff, why not come along this weekend and find out why we're such a popular day out in Bristol for many? Awarded Trip Advisor's 'Certificate of Excellence' for a 3rd year running, we'd be pleased to show you what we have to offer. Make the most of discounted Day Tickets if you purchase online. You can show your e-tickets on your mobile device at our Ticket Office for no-fuss entry. What are you waiting for? Thanks for helping with the big feed Sainsbury's!