As you may know, giraffes have their long necks in order to reach leaves that grow on tall trees. In the wild these animals can eat up to 11 kilograms of leaves per day, moving between trees when one runs out of leaves. But what do our giraffes do?

As they are zoo animals we can’t let them out to go and find trees. Our answer to this problem is to bring the trees to them. In addition to their diet of hay and giraffe pellets, the keepers will search the grounds at Flamingo Land looking for suitable trees, in order for the giraffes to have some fresh food. Only one or two branches are taken off each tree to ensure that there is no lasting damage, and these branches, with their leaves, are then hoisted into the air to allow the giraffes to assume more natural feeding behaviour.

With winter approaching, however, many of the trees in the park have lost their leaves, and evergreens are not suitable for giraffes to eat. But with so many leaves on the ground it is still possible to sweep these up and provide the giraffes with their healthy diet, and they have no problem eating any nettles that we pull up as well!