Santa Paws has come to town at the National Zoo for an early Christmas

On Friday, the National Zoo and Aquarium hosted their annual Santa Paws, as giraffes, bears and a range of other animals tore open their presents.

Zoo manager Gemma Walsh described the event as an important tradition for the animals, as Christmas Day is the one time a year the zoo closes.

"Today we are celebrating Christmas at the zoo early, so Christmas is the only day that we are closed at the zoo so we like to treat our animals a couple of days early," she said.

"Santa Paws gets to come to town and visit most of our animals."

While the animals opening presents creates a lot of fun for visitors at the zoo, it is also just as much about the animals receiving the complex care their species requires.

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"The animals are getting a variety of things from boxes to toys, to special food that they might not get all the time," Ms Walsh said.

"It's really important for their enrichment schedules so we do enrichment with our animals every single day, so a variety of different things so it is really important that we continue to enrich them."

As December gets closer to finishing, Ms Walsh said the zoo was preparing for a busy January and February summer period ahead.

"We're expecting pretty big numbers, hopefully into January, obviously it's a really nice time to come and visit the zoo, you've got all your family here and that sort of thing," she said.

"Why not bring them out and visit us here, there's lots of things, all of the animals will be very very excited to see you all."

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