VISITORS to Edinburgh Zoo are being given the opportunity to feed its tiger and lions – but only if they pay £2000.
The private experience is reportedly part of a fundraising drive for the zoo in a bid to help fund its upkeep.
The Build Your Own Wild Experience includes lunch; a coffee and cake voucher along with 30-minute sessions with four different animals and their keepers and those who pay for the experience get to enjoy the rest of the day roaming around the zoo.
Visitors who take part in the high-end experience will get to feed the zoo's two Sumatran tigers, seven-year-old Dharma and eight-year-old Lucu, through a wire mesh fence from an area not accessible to the public.
“You don't get to hand feed the tigers obviously,” said Lindsay Ross, Edinburgh Zoo's events and experiences manager.
Ross explained that the experience is safe and secure as visitors would still be outside the main animal enclosure.
The tigers are fed predominantly beef, deer, rabbit and horse, which visitors will be able to give them via a large pair of tongs.
She said: “You use tongs, which are similar to a litter pick and it's bits of meat from a bucket.
“You go to where people wouldn't be allowed because we have multiple stand-off areas before the last fence but you go with the keeper so it's supervised to make sure nobody puts fingers through the fence.”
Ross added: “It's amazing, they are so majestic up close. It's amazing just the size of their heads and things.”
Visitors will also be able to feed Asiatic lions Bindee and Jayendra as well as chimps, giraffes and sloths.
Another option on the tour is entering the penguin enclosure and feeding them along with stroking a koala or holding an armadillo.
The tours for two will also allow visitors to go into some cages to stroke or feed other animals.
Extra adults can join the tour for an additional £1000 and children £500 as Ross said the experience was the only one she knows of in the UK.
She said: “I don't actually know of any other zoos that do what we do in terms of this. There are not any other zoos that do a build-your-own package.”
