Ahead of the Easter weekend, animals at a UK zoo enjoyed some of their favourite festive snacks.

Anteaters, mongooses and monkeys at Drusillas Park in East Sussex were treated to a banquet combined with some enrichment activities to encourage their natural behaviours.

The anteaters tore into a colourful Easter egg piñata bursting with crickets, while lar gibbons carefully uncovered hidden treats like sweet potato and sweetcorn.

Instead of hot cross buns and Easter eggs, the Capuchin monkeys smashed open frozen eggs to discover a selection of snacks, and the park’s playful dwarf mongoose family kicked colourful eggs around. 

The zoo offers the animals a chance to keep their minds and bodies stimulated while it feeds more than 800 of its residents every day. 

Jacinta Dawe, Zoo Section Leader, said: ‘Just like we would get bored doing the same thing day in and day out, animals need new and exciting things in their day to keep them stimulated. 

‘Introducing new and unusual things helps encourage them to use natural and instinctive behaviours such as recognising scents, foraging, and problem solving.

‘If we just handed them food in the same way every day, they would lose their natural abilities.’

Animals at Drusillas Park in East Sussex enjoyed an early Easter treat with a selection of festive snacks

The park’s playful dwarf mongoose family kicked colourful eggs around in their enrichment activity

Capuchin monkeys smashed open frozen eggs filled with a selection of snacks

One of the mongooses at the park enjoys a kickabout with an Easter egg themed ball

The park’s anteaters tore into a colourful Easter egg piñata bursting with crickets

One capuchin monkey gets to work breaking open the frozen egg to reach the reward inside

The lar gibbons carefully uncovered hidden treats like sweet potato and sweetcorn

Egg-cellent fun: A pair of mongooses ponder over their ball in their Easter activity

Dinner for two: A pair of Gibbons enjoy a family meal in the spirit of the holiday

Ant-Easters: The park’s antears took it in turns to enjoy their festive treat of crickets