Unusual snack for an Orang...

[Nod]

Went down to Paignton Zoo on Wednesday to take advantage of there being fewer children midweek during term time. WRONG!!! Several school trips, although they were quite well behaved compared to some we've encountered there. Only took the X-30 since it was basically a Mk1 eyeballing day rather than trying to get great shots (slightly drizzly from time to time) so typically something of interest happened. Notified the keepers straight away but they didn't seem to worried about it. At a guess, the eel was about a metre long. Heavy in-camera crop.

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[braveboy2012]

Wow, that must have been pretty amazing to watch. Didn't realise they even went fishing.

 

[Nod]

Fairly sure the baby picked it up rather than fished it out. She was playing with it more than trying to eat it. TBH, I think I was more worried about it than the keepers were since dead eels on the bank tend to go off pretty quickly! Not sure how the eel ended up on the island, although there's plenty of bird life around that could have dropped it there after catching it. Mother Orang was totally uninterested in the thing.

 

[Chris Wilson]

Mature eels can cover quite a distance overland in their quest to return to the sea to breed - very much a case of wrong time, wrong place I guess!