Please help feed the animals

Making sure your loved ones receive their daily nutritional requirements can be a difficult task – particularly when the ones you care for consume trailer loads of their favourite foods!

Perth Zoo grows its own fodder and browse crops for its plant-eating residents but – with some huge appetites to satisfy – it also needs assistance from the public to supplement its supply of certain plant species.

The Zoo always requires:

• Ficus (Moreton Bay Fig, Port Jackson Fig),
• any species of Bamboo except giant bamboo,
• Coprosma (Mirror Plant), and
• Acalypha (Fijian Fire Plant).

We have to be certain of the plant’s identity (some plants are poisonous to animals), they must be pesticide-free and we usually need them in large quantities.

Donating appropriate branches is a terrific way for people to thin out their garden and help the Zoo at the same time.

So who eats what?

The Ficus is used as fodder for a variety of animals including elephants and primates, while the Mirror Plant and Fijian Fire Plant are fed to the Radiated Tortoises and various primates including the orangutans, gibbons and lemurs.

The Zoo’s colony of 12 orangutans consumes around four 53 litre-sized bins of Mirror Plant and Fijian Fire Plant cuttings each day, while the Asian Elephants consume around 16kg of browse every day.

The bamboo is for the Nepalese Red Pandas which feed almost exclusively on this plant. The Zoo’s pandas consume up to two 53 litre-sized bins of bamboo each day.

Can someone come and collect the branches?

Fresh branches from gardens or properties within a 30-minute radius of the Zoo can be collected by Zoo staff before midday from Monday to Friday.

Who do I contact?

If you think you can help, please contact Perth Zoo on 9474 0444 or email@perthzoo.wa.gov.au before pruning, to check whether your plant material can be used.