How much would you pay to land face to face with an enormous Sumaran tiger? A few hundred quid maybe? A couple of weeks’ worth of wages? How about 2,000 Great British Pounds? Well, that’s how much it’ll cost if you fancy feeding lunch to Edinburgh Zoo’s resident big cats.
The zoo has introduced a ‘build your own wild experience’. It’s an ‘entirely private’ tour of the zoo that includes lunch, a tea or coffee break, a goodie bag and 30-minute exclusive encounters with four animals of your choice.
If you’re feeling brave, you can hang out with Dharma and Lucu, Edinburgh Zoo’s pair of Sumatran tigers. You’d use a big pair of tongs to feed the big cats huge honks of meat through a (safe!) wire mesh fence not accessible to the public.
The other animals to choose from include the zoo’s resident koalas, lions, sloths, pygmy hippos or chimpanzees. For some of them, you can get up close and stroke. Others, you’ll only be able to feed through a fence, for obvious reasons.
Like we said, if you’re interested, you need to be prepared to spend an eye-watering £2,000 for two people. And if you want to make it a larger group thing, you’ll have to add another £1,000 for each extra adult and £500 per child.
It’s obviously a lot of money, but there are apparently plenty of people out there willing to spend it — the zoo says its answering a demand. The money raised through the experience will go towards taking care of the animals throughout the zoo and supporting its conservation efforts. Just think of the animals!
All the info for the build-your-own Wild Experience at Edinburgh Zoo can be found here.
More animal magic with Time Out
How about some animals you don’t have to pay to see? Take a look at our list of the best places to see rare and wonderful wildlife in the UK. And recent wildlife news, humpback whales are being spotted all over the English coast, seals in the River Thames could become the ‘new normal’, more of the UK’s biggest birds of prey are being released in southern England and a lost ancient rainforest in Wales is being brought back to life,
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