11 January 2012

An elephant eating a Christmas tree


Photographed at the Tiergarten Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienna, where discarded trees are offered to the elephants as an edible treat.  This frankly staggers my mind; I can't conceive of any herbivore enjoying a resinous fir tree (although in Africa I suppose they eat thornier and even less-tasty plants).  You learn something every day.


Photo credit Reuters/Lisi Niesner, via The Telegraph.

10 comments:

  1. In winter moose will eat fir trees.

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  2. And I do know of deer nibbling the leaders on the top of small fir trees, which would be relatively fresh growth.

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  3. i hear the elephants don't actually enjoy it, but they have been hired to pose for german elementary school 'english 101' schoolbooks, trunk trunk, and all that :)

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  4. Giraffes eat branches with inch-long thorns on. I can't venture an opinion as to whether they like it or not.

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  5. Elephant retsina!

    I personally think that I like the conifer taste of gin and resinated wine...I could be wrong.

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  6. Sort of like a natural wintergreen- lifesaver- flavored treat??

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  7. After Christmas you could enter the Amersfoort Zoo (The Netherlands) for free if you brought a Christmas Tree. Inside, we could see why: giraffes, eliphants and other animals were happy eating them.

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  8. The elephants in Munich at the Hellabrunn zoo get this treat every year, too.
    They really seem to enjoy it and the zoo gets lots of visitors after the holidays because the animals seem so happy about the christmas trees.

    There is a place, where you can bring your christmas tree to donate it, they take as many as they can get.

    And it's not just the elephants, almost every herbivore seems to love them..

    I was puzzled, too, when I heard about it, it must be hard and spiky in their mouths, but I watched them eat and some animals even fight over it, so...

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  9. You really wouldn't think that elephants would like like to eat x-mas trees... proved me wrong too :)

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