My day as a zookeeper - O is for Otter, R is for Red River Hog

I only got a relatively fleeting look at the smooth-coated otters at Otter Creek, as time was short, and they can't entirely be trusted with non-keepers, playful little scamps that they are, but there was time to find out a bit about them.

I got rather more time with the red river hogs though. They have the misfortune to be at a relatively remote corner of the zoo, and don't get as many visitors as, say, the meerkats. I like them though, and got to get fairly close to them.

Not happy, not happy at all...

My job was to feed them an assortment of apples, carrots, broccoli and other healthy stuff. The hitherto dominant male wasn't entirely happy, having been recently castrated to prevent the group from getting any larger, but he was still content to eat apples from my hand.

He couldn't have everything though, so I was obliged to give the fruit and vegetables some air. The downside of this was that some of the hogs were in receipt of glancing blows to the head from low-flying fruit. They seemed to take it in good spirit though.

And that left just one more animal, also beginning with R...