Zoo Officials Chirping with Excitement Over Breeding Program

Breeding crickets is expected to save the zoo $225,000 over three years. (Detroit Zoo photo)

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One of the fall banes to homeowners’ existence — hordes of invading crickets — is daily nourishment for 1,900 animals at the Detroit Zoo.

The zoo has launched a cricket breeding program that it figures will save about $225,000 in animal feed costs over three years.

The zoo said the purchase of crickets — the diet for mainly amphibians, but also reptiles, birds and some mammals — have historically carried the highest cost of all food sources at the zoo, including meat, fish and produce. Crickets cost the zoo about $98,000 a year.

“This breeding program guarantees an unlimited supply of healthy crickets for our animals and will result in significant cost savings,” Scott Carter, chief life sciences officer for the Detroit Zoological Society said in a statement.

Breeding the crickets at the zoo not only saves on shipping costs, but it removes any welfare impacts on the crickets associated with travel, the zoo said.

“This will allow more animals to have access to crickets and eliminate supply interruptions and health risks,” Carter said. “It also reduces our carbon footprint by eliminating packing materials required for the shipment and delivery process.”

To establish the program, a section of the Detroit Zoo’s commissary was renovated and 4,000 adult breeder crickets were acquired.