May at Tama Zoo is full of fresh greenery, making it a very pleasant season.

Amidst this lush greenery, as someone responsible for providing food for the animals, let me introduce you to the branches of the Japanese evergreen oak (pruned branches of the Japanese evergreen oak), which have become increasingly popular in recent years.

Japanese white oak (Quercus myrsinaefolia) is an evergreen tree belonging to the beech family, and can grow to a height of 10 to 20 meters, often found along the park's paths. The animals at the zoo prefer to eat Japanese white oak more than other types of oak. It is frequently given as food, especially to herbivores.

Currently, we purchase 100-150 kilograms of pruned Japanese evergreen oak branches three times a week. We also use the cut branches as food when we prune and trim the overgrown Japanese evergreen oaks in the park. Various animals, including Asian Elephant, African Bush Elephant, Giraffe, and Chimpanzee, eat the Japanese evergreen oak.


Giraffe eating Japanese evergreen oaks
While there is a high demand for pruned branches from Japanese evergreen oaks for animal feed, the Japanese evergreen oaks within the park cannot be freely pruned due to the need to maintain the landscape. Therefore, two years ago, a young animal keeper came up with the idea of securing a Japanese evergreen oak forest within the park that could be cut for animal feed. In cooperation with the department that manages the park's plants, they planted five young Japanese evergreen oak trees, each about one meter tall, in the park the year before last, and ten last year.

It's said that if you start using the branches three years after planting, they'll be usable for a long time afterward, so I think by this time next year, they'll have grown into fully-grown Japanese evergreen oaks. It's still a tiny amount, but I plan to use it to supplement the branches I've purchased or in emergencies.


The tree planting from last year (2016)
(May 19, 2017)