CZECH REPUBLIC: Elephants in Prague Zoo get Christmas trees for snacks

In most of the world, presents have been opened, festivities long finished and the only sign left of Christmas are the thousands of discarded trees left outside houses as rubbish. In Prague and most of the Czech towns, trees can be seen lining the streets waiting to be collected and reused in saw or paper mills. However, Prague Zoo found a more natural way of reusing the unwanted trees when zoo keepers started feeding them to their elephants. Christmas trees are not usually part of the animals' regular diet, but once a year zoo keepers give them carefully selected Christmas snacks or kishaw. "We don't usually feed elephants used Christmas trees, but we give them unused trees which are left-over from the Christmas market," said elephant feeder Jiri Javurek. In Prague, Zoo keepers have been feeding Christmas trees to the elephants for several years and elephants seem to like it. "Elephants don't usually get fed coniferous trees," said Javurek and added, "The leafy trees are more natural for them, of course. It (Christmas trees) just makes their menu more varied during the year. They take it once a year like snacks. They like fir trees more than spruce and pines least of all." Despite their size, elephants don't eat a lot - only around one tree per elephant a day. Nevertheless their Christmas feeding has become a small attraction at the zoo. The reserve of fresh Christmas trees can last until the end of March after which the elephants can look forward leafy trees for the rest of the year.

ITN Source | January 11, 2007

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