Christmas arrived early at Edinburgh Zoo yesterday when Father Christmas stopped by to deliver presents to Malayan sun bears and ring-tailed lemurs.
He began at the lemurs enclosure where he handed gifts straight into their paws.
The next stop was the sun bears, Rotana and Somnang, where presents stuffed with meaty goodness, fruit and nuts were placed under their decorated Christmas tree.
Jo Elliot, the zoo’s animal collections manager, said: “Celebrating holidays with the animals is a fantastic way to think creatively about the enrichment we give to them.
“Lemurs are naturally inquisitive so anything, or anyone, new in their enclosure is of huge interest to them.
“This interaction is a great environmental enrichment for the lemurs as they really do love the attention.”
She added: “Sun bears may be the smallest species of bear, but their size is definitely deceiving as whenever we put real pine Christmas trees into their enclosure, probably their favourite enrichment device, they wrestle them to the ground!”
The enrichment devices given to animals provide them with challenging and new experiences, which encourages them to display natural behaviours such as foraging, which they would do in the wild.
The sun bears, believed to be around ten-years-old, were rescued from the illegal pet trade in 2004 by the charity Free the Bears and arrived at the zoo in 2010.