The young male, born in May at Tiergarten Schönbrunn, is beginning to sample the adult diet alongside his mother. Every year, Vienna Zoo receives tonnes of fresh branches and foliage from the city’s green spaces to support the welfare of numerous animal species.
Fresh vegetation is much more than a food source: it also provides environmental enrichment, encouraging animals to explore, forage and express their natural behaviours.
The young zebra continues to nurse from its mother but has started showing interest in the adult diet, which consists mainly of grass, hay, fresh branches and leaves.
The birth also offers an opportunity to highlight a lesser-known aspect of the daily management of a modern zoo: the essential role that fresh vegetation plays in both nutrition and environmental enrichment for many species.
Fresh branches and leaves: an essential resource
Elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses and zebras regularly receive fresh branches and foliage as part of their daily care.
For highly specialised leaf-eating species, such as the Angolan black-and-white colobus (Colobus angolensis palliatus), fresh leaves are an essential part of their diet throughout the year. To ensure a constant supply, part of the collected foliage is carefully frozen and stored for use during the winter months.
“Fresh branches and foliage are both a valuable food source and an important form of enrichment for many of our animals. Part of the leaves is carefully collected and frozen to ensure an appropriate diet throughout the winter for species that depend on fresh vegetation,” explains Zoo Director Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck.
A long-standing partnership with the City of Vienna
The supply of fresh vegetation is made possible through a long-established collaboration with Vienna’s Forestry and Agricultural Department (MA 49).
Most of the branches and leaves come from the Lobau National Park and the Danube Island, where they are collected during routine tree maintenance and public safety work. Thanks to the short transport distances, the material reaches the zoo quickly, where it is given a second life as both food and environmental enrichment.
“These branches and leaves would normally become waste after maintenance work. At Tiergarten Schönbrunn they are put to valuable use, creating a wonderful local partnership that we are pleased to continue,” says Forestry Director Petra Wagner.
For the young zebra, which spends each day exploring its enclosure alongside its mother, this means gradually discovering the same foods that make up the adult diet while following the species’ natural developmental stages.
