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 BROOKFIELD, Ill. (AP) - At the Brookfield Zoo, cicadas are a lot more than just really noisy insects: They're delicious. These days, a host of animals from bearded dragon lizards to African wild dogs to white-crested laughing thrush birds are enjoying cicadas.
And zoo nutritionists — not to mention the mothers of all those lizards, dogs and birds — don't have to worry. Although the cicadas emerging this month after spending 17 years underground may seem like candy to the animals — crunchy on the outside and soft in the center — they're actually health food.
"They're extremely nutritious and won't impact their (animals') diets because they don't have a lot of fat in them," Tim Sullivan, the zoo's behavioral husbandry manager, said Friday.
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