Surrey Council donate leaves to giraffes at Chessington World of Adventures
Christmas dinner has come early for the 7 herbivores living in the adventure park
Surrey Council are making sure giraffes are eating their greens this Christmas and have provided Chessington World of Adventures Zoo with a donation of leaves.
This gift is being used to feed the 7 herbivores currently living the adventure park - who we're told are very grateful for the extra snacks.
This act of kindness involved sourcing local greens from Norbury Park - including fresh leaves, shoots and branches.
We paid the zoo a visit:
When the donation arrived back to the Zoo, the fresh produce was chopped up into smaller - more edible - pieces and store in airtight containers.
These were then placed in freezer storage.
This system, run by the team at Chessington World of Adventures, enables an ongoing stock of fresh food to feed the giraffes throughout the winter months.
We spoke to Senior Zookeeper Becky Apperley-Gorn about why it's so important to get donations like this in the winter.
She told us: "It's really important that we get donations like we did from Surrey Council.
"It just means that we have extra food to give to our giraffes.
"At this time of year, there's not a lot of leaves of trees so we need make sure we have enough winter storage - so we've frozen it, barrelled it and have made sure we have plenty to go around."
Zookeeper Becky also spoke to us about measures the resort are taking this festive period to keep their giraffes warm.
She said: "We've put in extra heating for the Winter, we like to keep our giraffe house maintained at 18 degrees - so it does stay nice and toasty for them all year around.
"They will cost us a little more money this year due to ever-rising costs, but they are totally worth it.
"We need to make sure our giraffes stay nice and healthy."