Plants: Browse Program
Plants grown for animal fodder
Some of the San Diego Zoo's greenery is grown for a special purpose: to provide primary and supplemental food for our animals. Eight employees work full time propagating, growing, and harvesting this special plant material we call "browse."
Annual browse cuttings:
- 15 tons of bamboo leaves and stems for giant pandas and red pandas
- 36 tons of 12 fig species for Zoo and Safari Park elephants, tapirs, okapis, gorillas, bonobos, and forest buffalo
- 24 additional tons of fresh fig foliage cut and shipped for Sumatran rhinos at the Cincinnati Zoo
- 20 tons of acacia for giraffes, elands, takins, serows, gerenuks, bonobos, and gorillas
- 200,750 pieces of 34 eucalyptus species for koalas, with additional pieces cut and shipped for koalas at other U.S. zoos.
