Imagine yourself in a restaurant like no other: at the table beside you, two owls are on a date. There’s an anteater dining solo over in the corner, and a family of leeches sitting around a table just behind you. There’s a lot on the menu, but some of the dining etiquette might just put you off your food. 

This is the imaginary scenario we put to Chester Zoo’s Assistant Manager for Visitor Engagement, Ashleigh Marshall, when we invited her to discuss: Which animal has the worst table manners? Of course, animals have no need for etiquette, and they have all evolved these feeding strategies for a reason, but indulge us as we get a bit silver service about it all. There’s some seriously questionable eating going on in the animal kingdom.