Food (L/M)

Food is one of the most essential resources in maintaining any living thing, with particular attention given to animals in captivity. Feeding animals is one of the major challenges of de-extinction, since the diet of a newly de-extinct animal may not be entirely understood and many of the most popular de-extinct species are quite large.

This article will focus specifically on food production and provision in de-extinction facilities.

Jurassic Park

During the 1990s, InGen maintained three distinct de-extinction theme parks and two research facilities around the Pacific. These included the original Jurassic Park and related Site B facility (housed on Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna respectively), Green Zone and Site C (also on Isla Nublar, but not made functional until the later 1990s), Aquatic Park (located roughly 500 miles from Isla Nublar farther into the Pacific), and Glacier Park (located on the coast within Los Glaciares National Park in Argentinian Patagonia). While the animals on Site B were left to roam freely after Hurricane Clarissa struck the island in 1995, park facilities at the other locations were constructed to import food for all of the animals.

In Jurassic Park, animals were categorized as either herbivores or carnivores. Some of the animals are known to have been omnivorous; these were generally treated as herbivores and given crops as a food source. Two separate harbor facilities on the northwest coast, near the Research Center, were developed to import meat and crops, with these two separate facilities ensuring that InGen could bring in as much of each resource as was needed without overproduction of the other. The park manager was able to expand these facilities by paying Coins or Cash to increase the maximum amount of time ships would continue coming into the harbor. As the facilities expanded, the docks were lengthened to make room for more ships. From the harbor warehouses, food was brought by truck into the park itself, and could be delivered to the animals in their paddocks. The animals of the Green Zone, much like Site B, were mostly allowed to roam and feed themselves in the wild. Site C was used for classified research and its feeding routines are not known.

Aquatic Park’s animals were all larger marine species, meaning they were actually all carnivorous or at least omnivorous. No plant life was imported as a food source to Aquatic Park. Instead, harbors were built on the edge of the continental shelf where submarines would deliver either fish or crustaceans such as shrimp. Seafloor vehicles or smaller submarines could be used to further transport the food, delivering fish to animals that were mainly piscivorous and crustaceans to those that were mainly crustaceavorous.

In Glacier Park, the harbors used the same arrangement for delivering meat and crops as Jurassic Park, though the specific meats and crops delivered were different than those intended to be fed to dinosaurs and pterosaurs. Other than these differences, the harbors in Aquatic and Glacier Parks were the same as Jurassic Park, as were the methods of food delivery to paddocks.

Food of all kinds could also be obtained in card packs, awarded for completion of missions, recovered during DNA expeditions, or won through combat testing on Site B.

Jurassic World

With an ever-increasing number of animals to feed, Jurassic World needed a different method of food production. As early as 1998, all the animal assets from Aquatic and Glacier Parks were transported via the S.S. Arc Atlantic to Site C, and eventually new specimens were cloned for exhibition in smaller Jurassic World facilities. Food production was moved onsite to the Food Factory, a large building located to the east of Main Street where meat, crops, and fish could all be delivered. The facility can be upgraded regularly to increase the amount of time it remains operational before reaching capacity. Meat is usually prepared for the animals rather than fed live, while crops in the form of various plant species are seeded and grown within the paddocks directly for the animals to feed from. A farm is located on the island where livestock are raised before being transported to the Food Factory. For VIP park managers, the Food Factory can be supplemented by the additional VIP Food Factory after two months of membership.

Semi-aquatic piscivorous animals are usually fed dead fish while the majority of fully-aquatic species are given live fish, though there are exceptions in both cases. The fish used varied depends on the species being fed, with salmon, tuna, and sharks all being fed to animals in the park. Crustaceans are no longer used as a major food source; all aquatic species are fed fish instead. Live food is provided to some of the animals of the Biodome, with food animals including the Central American agouti (which is native to Costa Rica) and the dodo (which is a de-extinct animal cloned by InGen).

Examples of food storage containers
Dinosaur Protection Group

Although the Dinosaur Protection Group does not run parks for entertainment, they do maintain animals in Sanctuaries for research and conservation. Food for use in these facilities is distributed to DPG members via the global network of supply drops, which all members can access. Containers of food can be brought directly to a Sanctuary or delivered remotely to any Sanctuary maintained by an alliance the member belongs to.

Carnivorous animals are typically fed live salmon, fresh whole tuna, cattle legs, or live goats. Herbivorous animals are instead fed fresh foliage or dried hay. Aside from the live goats, food is delivered to the animals via a system of skyhooks. Prepared meat or fish are usually tied off and suspended in the air at a good feeding height, while live fish are usually delivered in water and dropped to the ground. Hay and foliage are usually packed into a wire cage or other framework and moved to a good feeding height for the animal; packed foliage may be dropped to the ground from the container. Foliage may also be woven around an extendable branching structure which imitates the trees that some herbivores feed from in the wild.

Feeding animals in Sanctuaries is essential to their comfort. When the animals are made satisfied, samples of DNA can be collected from them.