Drusillas Zoo is appealing to local residents to donate their garden waste to feed their animals. The zoo is asking people to “skip the tip” and donate their unwanted garden offcuts as a tasty treat for their 800 animals. Many of the zoo’s species love to munch on different plants and browse, and it forms an essential part of their healthy and varied diet.
The donations of unwanted bamboo would be particularly welcome, as the zoo’s two red pandas, Maja and Mulan, can get through a staggering 4kg of bamboo a day – that’s 40,000 leaves! The zoo has an onsite plantation of bamboo, but many households have variations of bamboo they don’t always have access to, such as Phyllostachys nigra or ‘black bamboo’, which keepers say is like ‘panda candy’ to the pair.
Zoo Animal Manager, Mark Kenward, said: “We’re working really hard across the zoo to achieve a more sustainable way of working; we have local businesses who kindly donate surplus vegetables to limit their wastage, we use natural materials for animal enrichment, we’ve switched our animal bedding to coir, and 0% of our waste goes into landfill – so we’d love to get our local community on board too and make sure these very usable plants aren’t just thrown away.”
The zoo welcomes donations on any day of the week between 9am-5pm. Keepers ask for donated cuttings to be as fresh as possible, ideally cut the same day or within 24 hours. If you’re interested in donating, please email keepers@drusillas.co.uk to arrange drop-offs.
