Holiday Magic celebrated at the Charles Paddock Zoo
–Hundreds of people braved cold temperatures to attend Holiday Magic at the Charles Paddock Zoo in Atascadero. Saturday from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., zoo animals received gift-wrapped presents to discover, open and enjoy. Most of the gifts were food related, but Pona the fusa received a bowling ball which had spent several weeks in the tiger cage. Like many predators, the fusa is obsessed with the scent of other animals, so he’ll be checking out the bowling ball for weeks and watching for tigers.
The meerkats received a holiday gift box with crickets crawling among colored plastic balls. Food was hidden for the anteater to sniff out. The spider monkey knocked to the ground gift boxes perched on swings in its cage, and then opened them to find food inside the box.
Pure Gold’s Gary Brill played holiday music on his mobile sound system. KJUG’s Andy Morris performed card tricks for children and adults walking around the zoo. Santa Claus talked with kids, and posed for pictures. But the biggest attraction was watching the animals search for unexpected holiday gifts. Although cold weather greeted visitors, it did not chill the enthusiasm of zoo animals looking for Holiday Magic treats.
