The mongoose pack may not have known what an Easter egg hunt is.
But early today, they knew the brightly colored eggs placed in their habitat exhibit were food.
Shortly after 10 this morning, as zoo keeper Christina Seeley let them out into their exhibit, the 15 members of the Denver Zoo’s banded mongoose pack went dashing madly across the dirt to the eggs.
There were yellow, purple, green, lime, pink and orange eggs.
Tiki, Magwai, Evanrude, Tavi, Chama, Iggy, Gobo, Sprocket, Doozer, Wembley, Red, Mokey, Zoe, Elmo and Dang quickly pounced on them.
In some cases, the mongooses were attracted to the same eggs, especially the bright yellow ones, and little wrestling matches broke out.
The furry little animals would twirl in the dirt, letting out high-pitched squeaks as they dueled for the eggs.
Eventually, they each had their own and they patiently pawed away at the shells. Within 20 minutes, they were all eaten.
The Easter egg hunt for the mongooses was a preview of what will happen this Sunday.
Denver Zoo visitors will see an “eggstravaganza” of many of the zoo animals enjoying the colored eggs.
They will include mongoose, river red hogs, polar bears, arctic foxes, river otters, gorillas and mandrills.
The schedule for the egg-feedings will be:
10:00 a.m. – banded mongoose
10:15 a.m. – polar bears
10:30 a.m. – otters & arctic foxes
11 a.m. – capuchins
11 a.m. – langurs,
Noon – red river hogs
12:15 p.m. – gorillas, great apes
12:15 p.m. – mandrills
12:20 p.m. – mangabeys
1:45 p.m. – macaques
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
