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Elephant in the Berlin Zoo: raise the fir tree
Photo: ODD ANDERSEN / AFP
After the Christmas holidays, the elephants in several German zoos - for example in Duisburg and Berlin - can look forward to a change in the menu: They get to eat Christmas trees that have not been sold.
The Christmas tree feast has become a tradition there.
The meal is a delicacy for elephants, said a spokesman for the Duisburg Zoo.
The trees would be chewed down to the trunk.
One reason is the sweet resin.
Other animals such as kangaroos, antelopes or even tigers also have fir trees in their enclosures - but not here to eat, but mainly because of the smell, which is unusual and interesting for the animals.
From December 23, dealers began delivering excess trees to the zoo.
A total of several hundred trees were delivered.
The three Duisburg Zoo elephants would get several dozen trees a day.
However, only unused trees would be fed by traders - no privately used Christmas trees, according to the spokesman.
With private trees, the risk is too great that a ball or other jewelry has been forgotten and harms the animals.
The leftovers of the Christmas tree fodder should be composted.
ptz / dpa
