The Houston Zoo is a place full of beasts big and small, but they all have one thing in common: they have to eat!
As Capone, the oldest of the zoo’s meerkats, does sentry from the highest point in the exhibit, his bachelor pals swarm around zookeeper Hayley Halbrook. She reaches into a plastic tub, gently sprinkling the contents near her feet. The meerkats grunt and squeak as they lunge for the snack: mealworms.
“That noise they’re making says ‘That is my food. That is not your food,’” Halbrook explains.
Despite their tough exoskeleton, mealworms are one of the easier meals for meerkats.
“They have pretty harsh diets. They’ll eat things that have chemical defenses, things that are venomous,” says Halbrook.
Over at the American black bear exhibit, Belle and Willow enjoy occasional treats of honey, peanut butter, grapes and nuts.
“They are true omnivores. They eat a little bit of everything,” says Kathy Watkins, one of the zookeepers. “I would say honey and peanut butter are their two favorite things.”
Across the sidewalk, 450-pound lion Hasani prefers a little more protein.
“This is the good stuff,” Watkins says, sticking a chunk of meat onto a long skewer. “It’s filet, basically.”
While that doesn’t sound too bad for humans, we will have some even more appetizing options on the menu for Feast with the Beasts. The Nov. 2 event is a huge fundraiser for the zoo and it lets visitors get to eat alongside some of the zoo’s 6,000 animals, including the black bears.
The Houston Zoo is one of my happy places, especially the Swap Shop where I volunteer. I love all the critters big,...
“They will be one of our featured chats,” says Watkins. “So you can see Belle and Willow enjoy some of their favorite snacks.”
More than 50 local restaurants are participating this year and the band Everclear is performing.
Tickets get gobbled up pretty quickly, so snag yours here.