Hangzhou Zoo Celebrates Mid-Autumn Festival with Special Mooncakes for Animals

The animals at the Hangzhou Zoo feasted on “special mooncakes” during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

It’s the full moon again! Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, a time to eat mooncakes once a year. But have you ever wondered how the animals in Hangzhou Zoo celebrate this special occasion?

This morning, our reporter visited Hangzhou Zoo, where the staff had carefully prepared a variety of “moon cakes” for the small animals. These mooncakes are not your average treats, but rather specially designed to meet the nutritional needs of each species.

The “animal chefs” at the zoo prepare mooncakes using ingredients such as corn flour, soybean flour, and bran, which are then pressed into mooncakes with exquisite patterns. This not only ensures the health of the animals but also gives them a sense of the Mid-Autumn Festival ritual.

The two owners of the Giant Panda Pavilion, Chunsheng and Xiangguo, were treated to a special Mid-Autumn Festival dinner, complete with fresh bamboo leaves, bamboo shoots, fruits, and vegetables. The nanny even selected a mysterious fruit they had never eaten before – pomegranates, which were placed in a small bamboo basket.

The red panda next door also enjoyed a mooncake gift box filled with fruits, while the Asian elephants were treated to a “mooncake tower” made from fresh lotus leaves. It’s clear that the animals at Hangzhou Zoo had a wonderful time celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Author: Reporter Fang Jianfei, Correspondent Dai Wenqi

Editor: Xu Wenjie