The presents are unwrapped, the cookies are crumbs, and that real Christmas tree will become a fire hazard soon enough. Most of us haul it out to the curb for our local sanitation departments to take care of, but some lucky trees make it into the paws of animals living in zoos.
Since 1978, the Cape May County Park & Zoo in Middle Township, New Jersey, has solicited donations of undecorated Christmas trees from the community and unsold trees from nearby businesses. The trees are then given to the more than 550 animals that call the South Jersey zoo home.
“Not everyone can donate money to the zoo, and that’s totally fair. We’re a free zoo so that everybody can come here. But if you want to donate a Christmas tree, I think that makes people feel really good that they were able to help somehow,” senior animal keeper and enrichment coordinator Kim Simpkins tells Popular Science.
Why Christmas trees?
Fir, spruce, and pine trees provide the animals with enrichment and an important extra shelter from the cold winter air. While the Jersey Shore is mostly associated with the warm summer days, average low temperatures at the zoo can reach the low 20s in January. The donated Christmas tree can act as wind blocks to protect the animal enclosures.
“To block the doors that go into their huts, we use freezer flaps. But it’s nice to have an extra layer of protection, so we’ll use Christmas trees,” says Simpkins. “We’ll do this for the wallabies.”
The nearby kangaroos will often make little enclosures out of stacked Christmas trees so that they have another warm place to go.
Regis the red kangaroo plays with a Christmas tree
The Christmas trees also provide the animals with enrichment. For any animal in human care, whether it is the family dog or a lion at a zoo, enrichment gives them a creative outlet for physical activity, mental stimulation, and a way to choose how they spend their time.
“Enrichment is when we provide to the animal novel that is going to bring out some kind of natural behavior for the animal,” says Simpkins. “We have an enrichment plan for each of the animals at the zoo with their natural history, and then what kind of behaviors we feel like they need to exhibit here at the zoo that they might not need to because they’re not in the wild.”
Since animals in the zoo do not have to work very hard for food, the team will work in enrichment activities as a way to encourage them to use their natural foraging behaviors. For the primates, the keepers will sometimes hide bits of food within the donated Christmas trees for them to find.
“Many might think of enrichment as simply providing food puzzle toys, but enrichment is much more than that,” Cornell University veterinarian Dr. Kate Anderson, tells Popular Science. “Enrichment is ensuring that all of an animal’s needs are met and providing appropriate outlets for emotional, physical, and mental stimulation. Their needs should include safety, predictability, hygiene, nutrition, and much more.”
Simpkins adds that the zoo designs their enrichment, “ based on their natural history, the individual’s [animal’s] needs, and on our habitats.”
For the zoo, the Christmas trees also provide a free way of getting their animals these important enrichment items. According to Simpkins, durable plastic balls for lions and other enrichment items can cost $300 to $500 and do not always last that long thanks to sharp teeth and claws, so the donated items allow keepers to keep the animals entertained on a budget.
“There are infinite ways to provide enrichment, limited only by time, funding, and imagination,” says Dr. Anderson. “I think more than providing something ‘unique,’ it’s better to be holistic in approaching enrichment.”
Play with your trees
The zoo is home to over 550 animals representing 250 species. Each animal has their own way of racing to a new Christmas tree in and around their habitat.
“The lions really like to just carry around the Christmas trees,” laughs Simpkins. “They like the smell of them.” The lions will also pee on the trees and mark their territory as they would in the wild. When they mark the tree with their urine, it is a way to make it smell like them.
According to Dr. Anderson, enrichment also helps their welfare by giving the animals agency and choice. “Enrichment for animals is akin to “self-care” for humans,” she says. “Animals that are underenriched might be more excitable, hyperactive, vocalize more, play excessively or roughly, be aggressive or not sleep well. They also might display unwanted behaviors such as scratching, destructive chewing, digging, or raiding the garbage.”
The zoo’s bison also love to smell the Christmas trees, but their reaction to a new plant in their habitat can be considered a form of play. For biologists, play is considered something that an animal does just for fun, and not to look for food, shelter, or something else for survival. The zoo’s bison will head butt the trees around their yard, and also use them as wind blocks.
The monkeys and other primates will also climb on the trees and treat them a bit like a new piece of furniture. However, it is mostly all about food since the keepers are putting food in the trees for them to find.
“It depends on the species, but most of ours are frugivores, so we’ll put fruit in the tree and they’ll have to dig through the Christmas tree to find it,” explains Simpkins. “This is more similar to how they get fruit in the wild compared to a bowl. It’s great when the keepers are really creative, combining different toys to make foraging more complex or more interesting, or different.”
According to Dr. Anderson, enrichment can even be as simple as giving animals a choice and space to rest. “It’s extremely important to be mindful of an animal’s sensory experience (all animals hear, smell, and see the world differently than people),” she says.
Interested donors can contact the zoo directly with any questions and are encouraged read all of the instructions before donating. The zoo can’t take every tree, so donors are encouraged to call soon. You can also look for local mulching events, where your tree will be turned into wood chips that nourish trees and plants. Goats also love Christmas trees, so reach out to local farms and see if they are taking donations as well. If you live along the coast, check with your town about donating your tree, since they can help reinforce protective sand dunes.
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