Feeding time at the National Aquarium
Feeding time at Penguin Cove may look like a frenzied, fishy lolly scramble. But as the keepers at the National Aquarium in Napier pass out specially imported sprats to the cove’s inhabitants, they ensure no bird gulps down too much – or too little.
Meal times come with rules. To avoid lazy habits developing, unless they’re ill, the enclosure’s 17 little penguins aren’t waited on; they must approach a keeper for their food.
And there are no seconds until they eat their vitamins – in the form of pills slipped into the flesh of the small fish they’re devouring.
A frozen tonne of sprats shipped from Europe feeds the penguins for about eight months, and is among a full range of dietary requirements for more than 100 species of aquatic creatures and land animals housed at the aquarium.
It includes a daily haul of up to 40 kilograms of fresh fish feed, depending on the season, says the aquarium’s curator of exhibits, Kerry Hewitt.
There are many mouths to feed, including some 1500 fish in the facility’s 1.5 million-litre indoor ocean ari um .‘‘[ Feeding and food preparation occupies] quite a chunk of the staff’s time but then cleaning is probably the bigger chunk,’’ Hewitt says.
‘‘You don’t want them to eat too much and get too big, but you need to make sure they have enough.’’
Ox heart is a key ingredient of some diets, including for the aquarium’s kiwi, reptiles and piranha.
The kiwi receive one of the most diversified diets among the wildlife: a mix that includes, but is not limited to: beef, wheat germ, banana, carrot, apple, currents and corn oil.
Its insect-devouring tuatara, however, prefer locusts that staff breed on site.
Much of the fresh fish on the menu is hand-fed by divers twice daily to the sharks, stingrays and other larger fish in the 3m-deep tank.
American alligator Cheryl is served a mix of fish and meat, including rabbit, although she dines only every few days.
Hewitt can’t put a figure on the total cost of feeding the aquarium’s charges. It varies each season, and is also affected by factors such as currency fluctuations for imported foods like the penguins’ sprats – harvested from the North Sea.
As well as health needs, a major consideration for menu setting, Hewitt says, is ‘‘we try not to make it live food’’.