TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In response to the high supply of pineapples in Taiwan this year, Shou Shan Zoo has added them to the menu for its animals, highlighting the fruit’s nutritional value.

The zoo wrote in a Facebook post that the diversification of animal diets is an important part of a zookeeper's job. They design menus for animals according to what ingredients are in season, to ensure freshness and nutrition.

Pineapples are not only tasty but also high in dietary fiber and vitamin C, making them popular with zoo animals. Zookeepers ensure a balanced diet by cutting up pineapples and putting apples, guavas, tomatoes, and dragon fruit into pineapple bowls and adding vegetables such as shredded cabbage to reduce the sweetness of meals.

While preparing meals, zookeepers tend to leave the skin on fruits to preserve their original shape, though they may cut the fruit as needed to make them smaller and accessible to animals kept in groups. Animals including the lar gibbon, orangutan, Formosan black bear, African elephant, western mountain coati, and tortoise were served pineapples and shown to be enjoying their meals.

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) was cited as saying that thanks to Taiwan’s advanced pineapple farming techniques, in-season pineapples are especially sweet and tasty and have become a staple summer fruit. Through the zoo, animals also get to enjoy the fruit’s deliciousness.