European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 5, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                London stories and photos by. Xing Cruces . Bureau k s tuesday Market Day and Ron Smith is drawing up his shopping list let s see now. Twenty six boxes of apples with 30 pounds to the Box. Thirty three sacks of carrots and 66 sacks of potatoes. Five boxes of tomatoes 400 pounds of bananas 33 boxes of lettuce and some cabbage. A couple of boxes of celery for the Rcpt Ilo House. I d better get a bpm of Corn on the cob too because the naked mole rats and the wombats love i i umm 135 plump Juicy rats and 1,000 mice. The rats Cost 30 Pence about 42 cents apiece today and the mice half of that. What else now a couple of Hundred locusts. Four tins of Worms for the aquarium. A bit of fish make that 1,904 pounds of Whiting for the seals. One of the sea Lions is pregnant and is off her food so she should enjoy a bit of squid say about 485 pounds of it. Have i forgotten anything of almost forgot to order Bamboo shoots their favorite food for the giant pandas Chia Chia and  Ron Smith is the supplies officer for the London zoo and it s his Job to order everything the zoo consumes in a year. Lust under 8,968 animals live at the London zoo if you include the mammals Birds reptiles amphibians fishes and invertebrates but not counting the bees Locust or the ants in the insect House. Last year the creatures grazed chomped nibbled and gnawed their Way through 224,000 pounds about $314,000 Worth of food All ordered by Smith most of it from the wholesale markets of London and All fit for human consumption. Fish and meat All with the dec stamp Are stored in the zoo s cold stores. These can hold 25 tons of food at a time and this Supply will last for about six or seven weeks. Last year the supplies department ordered and handled 400 tons of Grain and Pellet foods 260 tons of Hay Straw and Clover 500 Bales of peat 5,000 bag of sawdust 3,000 bags of Wood chips 80 tons of carrots 52 tons of potatoes 27 tons of greens 72,000 eggs and 24,000 pints of milk plus another 8,000 pints produced by the zoo s own Dairy cattle. Other deliveries included 50 tons of meat 2 tons of liver 3 tons of hearts 14 tons of herring 8 tons of Mackerel and 6 tons of sprays. At ome zoos the animal s meals Are prepared in a Central Kitchen and sent out ready for consumption but at London zoo we believe that it is Best for the keepers themselves to make up the diet for they Are acquainted with each animal As an individual and know its likes and dislikes. Animals like human beings vary in their tastes and two animals of the same species will sometimes eat quite different things so it is both practical and economical to prepare the meals on site explained Joan Crammond the zoo s press officer. Each Day a Van makes its Way around the zoo and Calls at every House to deliver the ingredients to the keepers. Each House has its special requirements. The Bird House receives some 40 different items a week seeds of Many kinds feeding pellets and different types of meal assorted fruits dried Flics and meat. The insect feeding Birds have their diet supplemented by insects Many of them specially bred in the zoo for this purpose. Fruit flies and blow Fly larvae Are bred in considerable quantities throughout the year As Well As about 250,000 locusts. Mealworms the larval stage of one of the flour beetles Are also fed to a variety of Birds she said. Crammond said a great Deal has been Learned in recent years about the diets needed by individual species. Many animals for example prefer the tender cuts of meat but the eagles and vultures Are More Content with Tough grisly joints which give them the nourishment they need and also provide the roughage which is vital to their Digestions. Lean meat is fed to the piranhas in the aquarium while fatty meat is fed to the bears. Other animals however Are not As limited in their tastes As might be expected. For instance the anteaters do not demand ants an expensive item to Supply in Large quantities but they do enjoy and thrive on a substitute diet of canned meat milk and raw eggs. As it is not possible in All cases to give the animals exactly the same food As they would find in their native habitat the zoo gives them diets which Supply All the needs of their bodies in a form that they can digest without trouble. Among the Small mammals there Are a number of unexpected requirements. The otters for example each have an ounce of soft Margarine spread upon their meat to keep their Coats Well oiled. Other specialist items Are Honey and Jam for the bears and monkeys plus Black currant juice for the apes. These Are treats with which to hide the taste of any medicines which need to be Given. Some Birds with Pink or red plumage such As flamingos and Scarlet ibises Are fed successfully on quite Ordinary foods but it has been found that their feathers tend to become quite Pale and continue to lose color at each moult unless their diet includes chemicals called carotenoids. These Birds now have a harmless carotenoid Dye added to their food and this keeps them in their Normal Bright color explained Crammond. Ironically the captive creatures from Asia Africa India and South America probably cat far better than the average human being from one of those continents. Chances arc in fact that their carefully controlled diets Are More nutritious than those of most american zoo goers. The maintenance of Well balanced diets has been much easier since 1968 when it was decided to Stop the visitors feeding the animals. Some animals will eat anything and everything that is offered to them and sometimes with disastrous effect. Others diverted by the lure of food offered to them by visitors developed the habit of begging seriously reducing the exercise they took according to Crammond and leading in some cases to digestive disturbances. People thought nothing of saving stale and sometimes Mouldy crusts to bring on their visit or offered the remains of their sandwiches alter they had eaten their picnic lunches. The latter could prove fatal to some of the apes and monkeys who Are particularly susceptible to cold and flu germs against which they have far less resistance than a human being said Crammond. She ticked off a list of non dietary items which some of the animals lifted from unsuspecting visitors As they leaned Over to offer titbits. In one year alone she said the elephants seized and damaged beyond repair 14 Coats 12 handbags 10 cameras eight gloves and six round trip train tickets All to Leicester England. There was also the Day that the elephants grabbed a greek woman s handbag containing her and her husband s passports and identity cards. Zoo officials had to write a letter to the Creek authorities to confirm that these valuable documents had indeed been eaten by an elephant. A visitor it the London zoo Breaks the Rutes and fe4 Whipsnade zoos Are increasingly becoming genetic r repositories for the last living examples of endangered animals and their irreplaceable Muk million year Gene combinations. Breeding 3�thrfl merely showing off two by two postage stamp. Collections of creatures is the True function of Todi a Nanny Goat wit her kid in the to hip a