Colchester: Unwelcome visitors at zoo (From Gazette)

Colchester: Unwelcome visitors at zoo

8:29am Thursday 19th June 2008 in News By Tom Parkes

RATS "almost as big as cats" spoiled a dad's day out.

Steven Verlander was looking forward to seeing some wildlife at Colchester Zoo - but didn't bargain on rodents running riot on the wrong side of the bars.

He and partner Charlene spotted two rats running down a footpath.

Another was gnawing on a massive bone in the tiger's enclosure.

A third was spotted chomping on a lolly stick, yards from their baby son Dylan's pushchair.

Zoo bosses today said rats were unavoidable, as animals had to be fed by scattering food on the floor.

Mr Verlander, of East Ham, London, blasted: "Rats carry all sorts of diseases and I'm worried about them coming near people's children.

"They seemed to be everywhere and some of them were really big - larger than squirrels and almost as big as cats.

"I informed staff while I was there but they didn't even seem concerned."

A zoo spokesman told the Gazette recent heavy rain had prompted rats to flee surrounding fields, in search of an easy life scrounging food from their exotic animal cousins.

She added they sometimes developed a resistance to poisons used by keepers.

"We do have a system of pest control in place and this usually keeps the level of vermin under control," she said.