S’pore Zoo Nutritionist, Francis Cabana, Talks About Craziest Thing He Feed To Animal
When you talk about Nutritionist’s job, it will be quite a common thing for we as a human on our daily life routine. But it is totally different perception for Francis Cabana, a wildlife nutritionist with Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS).
Cabana’s daily job is to provide over 15,000 animals in the 4 parks under WRS which consist of Singapore Zoo, River Safari, Night Safari and Jurong Bird Park with specially catered nutritious food. The food can go until Milo with sweet fruits for Orang Utans, feeding mouse brains to reptiles and feeding ant, and termites for pangolins.
All this food has been studied by Cabana and it holds the highest nutrition for these animals. Therefore, it is very crucial for those animals maintaining a healthy life to be there at WRS. With a rounding up to 6.5 tonnes of food to be used on feeding which it usually takes about 3 lorries full.
Cabana’s task becomes harder especially during these Covid-19 periods as there might be a shortage of fruits and vegetable supplies which gives Cabana a great challenge.
He also added that there is a new challenge as they will set a new target on zero-food waste which they are undergoing now as a part of programs to prevent food waste and use of ugly food which is still edible for these animals.