SUAMICO, WI (WTAQ) – Giraffes at the NEW Zoo received a special breakfast Thursday morning, courtesy of the American Transmission Company.
The company trims branches to clear power lines. Giraffes like to eat what’s on the end of those branches.
“The tree trimmings are coming from transmission line rights of way in the northeast Wisconsin area that we’ve had to maintain,” said ATC Manager of Vegetation Management, Michelle Stokes. “It’s a no brainer. It’s helping support a gem in the northeast Wisconsin community. It’s a great partnership, for we need to maintain transmission lines and they would like to encourage natural foraging habits for their animals so it’s a partnership that just makes sense.”
The dump truck-sized donation was, as one zookeeper called it, ‘Christmas’ for the zoo in June.
“It takes our zookeepers time that they don’t really have in their schedule to go harvest that, we’re harvesting it sustainably which means you have to drive further every time and it’s a time consuming issue,” said NEW Zoo Animal Curator Carmen Murach.
But for Zuri and Nigel, the giraffes at the NEW Zoo, it’s a treat.
“It’s really healthy for them behaviorally and nutritionally and it it’s just a great thing,” Murach told WTAQ News. “It’s very nutritious for them particularly for that Giraffe feeding program. This mimics what they would do in the wild. They would spend their day plucking leaves from trees.”
Murach says many other animals, including the elk, bison, pronghorn, prairie dogs, moose, goats, deer, and even the bear enjoy the treat as well. Even the penguins like it, but not to eat – they just play with it.
But unlike those animals, employees do have to monitor how much the giraffes eat each day.
“They put them into distinct packages that we know exactly what’s in there. Those are in our cooler for the rest of the week to be fed out to the giraffes,” Murach explained.
There are some tree species, however, that actually have a level of toxicity. Some animals may react differently to different species of what the zoo likes to call ‘browse, which is simply another term for the tree trimmings.
A short video of the process from the delivery to the feeding is available here:
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