Meals on wheels – VOLK Electric Truck at Dresden Zoo

One loves to eat Wiener schnitzel, the other prefers loup de mer – but what is actually the situation with zoo animals? Do they also have their individual preferences and favorite dishes?

The so-called food preparation officer is responsible for compiling the menu in the zoo. He knows exactly what the individual animals need, what agrees with them and what delicacies they especially like. Even diet plans are taken into account, as the animals in the zoo enclosures usually move around a lot less than in the wild.

This is no easy task as at Dresden Zoo around 3.000 animals of nearly 400 different species have to be fed every day as appropriate for their species. Around 110 tons of hay, 23 tons of carrots, 20 tons of straw, 15 tons of beef and 3 tons of bananas are stored, prepared and fed to the animals every year in the food preparation center of Dresden Zoo. However, the menu for the animals also includes many more dishes. For the primates, for example, melons, peaches, mangos, papayas and salads are stored in one room. Branches, leaves and large quantities of bread are intended for the elephants. And in a specially equipped cold store, dead hares, mice and chicks are stored on pallets as food for birds of prey, hyenas, reptiles and similar animals.

In order for all this to reach the animals in a fresh condition, the food preparation officer begins preparing the day’s rations at 5 o’clock in the morning already – also on Sundays. Normally the various sections have already placed their orders the previous day. Before the zoo-keepers begin work at around 7 o’clock, the food is loaded onto a VOLK Electric Transporter and delivered to the various sections of the zoo. Shortly afterwards many of the animals get their first meal of the day.

To ensure that all animals get enough to eat, the VOLK EFW 2 Electric Transporter has a payload of 2.000 kg. A hydraulic liftgate enables heavy loads to be easily loaded and unloaded – if necessary even halves of cow carcasses. The noiseless electric motor is especially important in the zoo, which offers large numbers of people rest and relaxation. A battery with a capacity of 80 V/575 Ah ensures sufficient range on the more than 13 hectares of the zoo grounds.

Around 650.000 visitors to Dresden Zoo every year can see for themselves at one of the public feeding times that the food preparation officer and the zoo-keepers know the tastes of their animal charges very well. But actually it’s enough to observe the satisfied animals in their enclosures for a while to know that they are in the best hands here.