East Sussex zoo asks for garden waste donations to feed animals
Cuttings from plants like bamboo, sycamore and ash are a particular favourite
Drusillas Park in East Sussex is asking people to ‘skip the tip’ and donate their unwanted garden waste to the zoo instead.
Keepers say cut offs like bamboo, ash, sycamore and willow are a favourite among a number of the animals and provide part of a healthy and varied diet.
Other plants can also be used for play and extra padding for beds.
Manager, Mark Kenward, said: “Most people’s cuttings will likely end up at the tip or on bonfires, but donating them to the zoo instead means none of it goes to waste as they are a really valuable food source for our animals such as red pandas, sloths, lemurs, capybaras, and many of our primates.
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
The park is particularly keen for any cuttings of bamboo to feed its two red pandas, Maja and Mulan, who get through 4kg of the plant each day.
Drusillas already has a bamboo plantation onsite but claim many households have different varieties such as Phyllostachys nigra or ‘black bamboo’ – said to be like panda candy.
Mark added: “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 per cent 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.”
Anyone wanting to donate their garden waste is asked to keep it as fresh as possible, ideally cut within 24 hours, before arranging a drop off at the site in Alfriston.