Homegrown harvest

A gardener’s gift of surplus marrows, swede, cabbages and pumpkins has been very well received by many mouths at DZG.

ABOVE – Female capybara Peanut enjoys the marrow served up by Trainee Keeper Josh Luxton

John Jordan and his wife Shirley, pictured left, delivered the pile of produce to DZG after they had a bumper harvest on their allotment.

The Cradley Heath couple said they wanted to put their excess greens to good use.

And they certainly did! The 20 cabbages, two pumkins, a dozen marrows and several swedes have all been shared out across the site.

Section Leader Jay Haywood said the tapirs had been tucking into the marrow along with the capybaras, the peccaries and the porcupines.

And Head of Lower Primates Nicola Wright was delighted with the donation of a pumpkin.

She said: “The chimps have enjoyed eating the flesh of the pumpkin and we are drying out the seeds to give to our saki monkeys.”

John, who has a plot at Cherry Orchard allotments near his home, said: “We heard of another gardener doing something similar for the zoo last year and we said we’d do the same this year if we had any surplus stuff.

“There’s too much here for us and it’s a real pleasure to give it to the zoo as we love animals.”

Shirley said she used to come to DZG as a little girl and had fond memories of the place.

Thanks John and Shirley – It was so kind of you to think of DZG!