Story time for East Sussex zoo animals on World Book Day

Animals at an East Sussex zoo have been treated to some special bedtime stories to mark World Book Day.

Keepers at Drusillas Park near Alfriston treated creatures including sloths, camels and armadillos to children’s favourites.

The theme for World Book Day this year is ‘make it YOUR World Book Day’, with book lovers around the globe being encouraged to celebrate the day however they wish.

While the furry and scaly residents didn't follow their human counterparts in being dressed up as famous book characters to mark the day, they didn't miss out thanks to keepers who dug out their favourite children's stories to read aloud to them.

The red pandas and sloths read ‘Who’s at the Zoo?’, Shetland ponies enjoyed ‘Monkey Puzzle’, armadillos got their noses into ‘The Gruffalo’, and the capybaras learnt about ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’.

Zoo section Leader, Claudia Farley, said:

"We have built up really special relationships with our animals, and we are always looking for new enrichment activities for them, like offering food in the form of a puzzle or introducing new items for them to explore – so it was fun to see how our animals responded to us spending some extra time near them and reading aloud.

"It was lovely to see their curious little minds trying to work out what we were doing, and they seemed to be really engaged and enjoy the stories!"

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