Well since this place is boring af, I thought this was interesting

May 28, 2025, 4:05 PM

COLUMBIA — The Riverbanks Zoo is tasked with feeding more than 3,000 animals from across the world — that means there’s a lot of different diets.

While you might think exhibits like the big cats, or perhaps the new rhinos, cost the most to feed, the real answer might surprise you: koalas.

Though the capital city's zoo only has two of the furry marsupials, Kirra and Milo, their unique food costs up to $4,000 per week.

That’s because they only eat eucalyptus leaves, which have to be shipped overnight twice a week from farms in Florida and Arizona.

Despite their expensive taste, the koalas only eat about half of their food before keepers have to throw it away.

Greg Peccie, director of animal care at Riverbanks, said he’s tried to get them to eat sweetgum, which can be grown locally, but they didn’t take to it.

“A lot of the stuff we buy we’re not paying ridiculous amounts of money for it,” Peccie said, “But something like eucalyptus, that’s not a choice. I don’t have anything else I could feed them, and that makes it very difficult.”

The most food the zoo orders, by volume, is produce — specifically romaine lettuce, which they get 40 boxes of a week.

The giraffes and gorillas eat most of that.

Following close behind, they order 6,000 pounds of fish every five weeks and truckloads of hay monthly.

The rhinos get five bales of hay every day. At least. They also get “kibble,” which is similar to dog food, but formulated to contain all the essential vitamins and minerals that dry hay lacks.

As for the fish, Target, the 1,000 pound sea lion, puts a hefty dent in the zoo's order. The sea lions are on a squid diet right now because it’s cheap and nutritionally dense.

“Fortunately, some of the things, like fish, are not as sought after,” Peccie said. They feed the animals, like the penguins, smelt and herring, which are less expensive fish not commonly fished for the commercial restaurant market.

But sometimes that can cause tummy troubles.

When they get new shipments of fish it might be caught from different parts of the ocean, meaning the nutritional make-up might differ. When this happens it can take a second for the penguins to adjust to the new food.

The fish are also all different sizes so the keepers have to make sure they’re paying attention to who they’re feeding.

“They literally have to say 'okay, that fish is too big for this penguin, but this penguin over here is a mule that will take anything. So let’s save this big fish for him,' ” Peccie said.

Every day the commissary team arrives at 7 a.m. to begin prepping everyone’s meals. They work off specialized “diet cards” — they’re different everyday for every animal.

The commissary team works with both the veterinarians and the animal husbandry team to decide who and how they’re going to feed.

“If you’ve got an animal that naturally is going to be foraging all day, walking around looking for little bits and pieces of food, like the gorillas, we actually chop up their produce into small amounts and scatter it in the habitat,” Peccie said.

They try to mix up what kind of food they’re scattering. Peccie says it can range from apples to sunflowers or pumpkin seeds to spinach.

“So we do modify the diet, but over the course of the week they’re going to get about the same things,” Peccie said.

Some animals, like the venomous snakes, take extra care to feed.

“We have to be extra careful, you really got to know what you're doing,” Peccie said. “We’ve got a very skilled team. They do it very safely, but it’s a process and you’ve got to make sure you’ve got backup.”

Peccie said the most rewarding part of the process is when the commissary team gets to take a break and look at the exhibits and their inhabitants.

“It’s important for them to go down to the area and see how the team works, so they feel connected to the purpose of their job and what they’re doing.”