|
ZooNooz Article - december 2005
What's the buzz?
Story by Christine Wichems
Photograph Jo Nevin21
The unit can produce up to 40 kilos of fly pupae and maggots per week - enough to meet the demand for flies and still have extra to store.
SWAT! With so many flies about during the summer, have you ever wondered why Taronga bothers breeding these annoying creatures?
As Geoff Harris of the Live Breeding Unit explains, flies comprise an important source of protein for a number of zoo animals. However, winged adults are rarely given except as occasional enrichment items to frogs and lizards - just imagine the nightmare swarms of flies would be for both keepers and visitors! Rather, flies in the larval (maggot) and pupal (cocoon) stages serve as food - and the fly pupae are inactivated by freezing so they don't develop into adults.
Flies |
Furthermore, different types of flies possess attributes that make them more desirable as food sources. The zoo produces house flies - the medium-sized ones which buzz around your face - rather than blow flies which are carnivorous and associated with dead carcasses and horror shows. House flies are high in protein and low in hard keratin, making them more nutritious and easier to digest than other flies.
The unit can produce up to 40 kilos of fly pupae and maggots per week - enough to meet the demand for flies and still have extra to store. At approximately $30 per kilo, this represents a huge saving to the zoo - and at 78,000 pupae per kilo, it's also a lot of flies.
Want to read more?
By joining as a Zoo Friends member we send you a full colour, glossy magazine each quarter as part of your membership package. Join now.
« Back to ZooNooz article listing
|
