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Video: Meerkats, an
anteater and elephants open their Easter treats

Forget soft centres and nougat,
meerkats tucked into their own Easter treats at Port Lympne...
juicy mealworms!

The animals were given the giant
papier mache eggs as part of an enrichment challenge, to encourage
them to forage for their food.

And they tucked into the treats with
gusto at the wild animal park on the outskirts of Hythe.

Meanwhile at Howletts, near
Canterbury, elephants and an anteater munched their way through
their own tasty morsels.

Adrian Harland, animal director, said:
"It's important to provide enrichment for our animals – it helps
keep them interested and offers new challenges for them.

"The papier-mache eggs were perfect
because the meerkats had to work out how to retrieve the treats
inside."

The meerkat clan, a favourite with
visitors to the wild animal park, proved to be very
resourceful at getting their paws on the treats.

Head keeper Richard Barnes
added: "We filled the eggs with some lovely nutritious treats
that meerkats can't resist and then carefully placed the eggs
inside their open topped enclosure.

"The meerkats are very resourceful,
they normally dig in the dirt or scrape off bark from trees to get
to their food and their sharp claws certainly came in useful in
dealing with this feeding challenge – they just ripped the eggs
apart!"

Visitors to the wild animal park this Easter holiday will be
able to take part in providing Easter-themed enrichment for the
animals.

For further information
regarding Easter themed events at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park
visitwww.aspinallfoundation.org/portlympne.