Bioparque Buinzoo in Santiago, Chile, ran an Easter egg hunt intended for zoo animals, not children, on Sunday, with themed snacks placed inside multiple enclosures across the park. The “egg hunt,” the zoo said, is meant to entertain visitors while encouraging species-appropriate foraging behavior.
In enclosures for small felines, zookeepers placed small bags decorated like Easter eggs and filled them with meat. The design aimed to prompt hunting-like behavior, and caracals were seen leaping onto tree branches to reach their snacks.
Other animals had different versions of the challenge. A meerkat enclosure featured a basket with eggs positioned between rocks, giving the animal a scavenging-style setup for finding food.
Monkeys and lemurs were served fruits hidden in brown paper bags decorated like Easter-themed “bunny years,” according to the event description. The zoo also incorporated a separate foraging method for sheep: their feed pellets were placed inside a colorful sphere with holes, requiring the animals to work for the food.
Ignacio Idalsoaga, the zoo’s director, said the event reflects how animals eat in the wild. He said that “in nature, these animals spend much of their life looking for food” so the zoo wanted to recreate that behavior, and he added that the treats and snacks were “not chocolate eggs,” but foods the animals would eat in their natural habitat.
Idalsoaga said the Easter egg hunt has been held for the past 16 years at Bioparque Buinzoo and that the zoo’s “creative team” was imaginative again this year, including the use of a hole-filled sphere for the sheep’s pellets.