The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun
Carcass feeding gives zoo animals taste of wild side
The game meat season has arrived. I eat game whenever the opportunity arises because I like its savory taste and think consuming it may be making good use of the wild boars and deer that are killed as crop-damaging pests. Lately, game meat is not only consumed by people but is also fed to a number of zoo animals and fish kept at aquariums across the country. This move is called carcass feeding.
The Oga Aquarium GAO in Oga, Akita Prefecture, has recently posted on its YouTube account a video showing two polar bears kept at the facility being fed two wild boar carcasses.
“Polar bears in the wild hunt seals and feed on them,” said Seitaro Taguchi, a keeper at the aquarium. “We give animals in captivity opportunities to feed in environments as close as possible to their natural habitats, so that they can increase their amount of physical activity per day and spend time in a more lively manner, which is one of the purposes [of carcass feeding].”
A message is displayed at the beginning of the video, warning viewers that it contains graphic images. Indeed, people averse to seeing such videos had better not watch it because even though the heads and guts have been removed and the meat, to prevent infection, has undergone low- temperature thermal sterilization, the boar carcasses are shown with fur and legs intact.
After the warning message, the video shows the carcass of a wild boar weighing 3 kilograms being placed inside the cage of Yuki, a 20-year-old female polar bear, which is usually fed with pro
cessed horse meat, compound feed and the like. At first Yuki looked cautious and started eating the carcass hesitantly, which invited laughter from the visitors. The other polar bear named Gota, aged 16, did not hold back as Yuki did.
He devoured the whole carcass, including the fur and bones.
The video has had almost 1 million views since the aquarium released it in August.
So far 14 zoos and aquariums nationwide have adopted carcass feeding, although some of them are in trial, said Kazuyuki Ban, a zookeeper at Morioka Zoological Park in Morioka, which is working on the promotion of carcass feeding. According to a survey by the Environment Ministry, about 1.24 million boars and deer were killed as pests in fiscal 2019. Most of the carcasses were discarded, with only 10% or so used as game meat.
Zoos are becoming places not only to learn about animal behavior but also to think about the life cycles of wild animals that are eliminated to improve the convenience of human lives. (Dec. 10)