Homegrown dinner is served!

Lower Primates keepers have harvested a feast for DZG’s chimps after planting runner beans on site.

ABOVE – Beanz meanz treatz – Keeper Shaun Crompton picks some of the DZG crop for our seven hungry chimpanzees

The zoo’s gardening team grew the beans from seed and handed over the seedlings to keepers to plant in an off-show area at the back of the one-acre chimp enclosure.

And now the beans are ready for picking to give to our seven female chimps Mandy, Fanny, Barbie, Malaika, Binti, Mali and Banika.

Head of Lower Primates Nicola Wright said: “The beans are a really good source of protein for the chimpanzees and we’ll also be giving some to the spider monkeys and all the small monkeys in Monkey Tails.

“This was the first time we had grown our own beans, with a little help from the gardeners, and we plan on planting a wider variety of herbs, vegetables and edible flowers in the future.”

ABOVE – It’s bean a joint effort… Lower Primates Section Leader Nicola Wright thanked DZG Head Gardener Carl Stevens for growing the seedlings which have now blossomed