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From Zoo Poo to Zucchini: Why Every Zoo Should Be Growing Its Own Organic Food — And Why Planning Starts NOW!
Updated: Aug 22
A blog by Animal Insights Consultancy Ltd — practical, evidence-led animal collection consultancy with passion at its heart.
There's a quiet revolution happening behind the scenes at some of the world's most forward-thinking zoos and animal collections — and it's growing, quite literally, out of the ground! Sustainable zoo horticulture, on-site organic vegetable growing, and the brilliant closed-loop use of zoo poo compost are transforming how modern zoological collections feed their animals, engage their visitors, and slash their carbon footprints.
And here's the exciting bit: now is exactly the right time to start planning for next year's summer growing season. Seed catalogues are landing, beds need preparing, and that glorious mountain of nutrient-rich animal waste your collection produces every single day? It's not a disposal problem — it's garden gold waiting to happen!
At Animal Insights Consultancy Ltd, we believe every zoo, wildlife park, safari park and animal collection — whatever its size — can embrace organic food production on zoo grounds. Here's why, who's doing it brilliantly, and how to get started.
Why Grow Your Own? The Case for Organic Zoo-Grown Food
Feeding a zoo is a serious business. Fresh browse, leafy greens, root vegetables, herbs and enrichment spices are bought in daily — often at significant cost, with food miles attached and packaging waste to manage. Growing organic vegetables, herbs and spices on zoo grounds flips that equation completely:
Fresher, higher-quality animal diets — harvested metres from the enclosure, packed with nutrients, and totally free from pesticide residues. Perfect for sensitive species and specialist animal nutrition programmes.
Slashed food miles and procurement costs — every kilo grown on site is a kilo you don't buy, transport or unwrap.
A genuine closed-loop, circular economy — animal manure and bedding become compost; compost grows food; food feeds animals. Beautiful!
Unbeatable enrichment opportunities — home-grown herbs like mint, basil, rosemary and lemongrass are sensory enrichment superstars for big cats, primates and elephants alike.
Visitor engagement and education — a working kitchen garden is a living exhibit that tells your sustainability story every single day.
Staff wellbeing and volunteering — gardens bring keepers, horticulture teams and community volunteers together with real pride and purpose.
This is zoo sustainability you can see, smell and taste — and it's exactly the kind of joined-up thinking that modern accreditation bodies, funders and visitors are looking for.
And Here's the Best News: It Doesn't Need to Be Expensive!
Let's bust a myth right now — on-site organic growing does not require a big budget. Some of the most productive zoo gardens started with little more than reclaimed timber, donated seeds, keeper enthusiasm and a wheelbarrow of well-rotted zoo poo! Consider:
No-dig beds cost pennies — cardboard, compost you already produce for free, and you're growing. No machinery, no expensive soil imports, minimal labour.
Your compost is free — the single biggest input cost for most growers (soil fertility) is something your animals produce every single day.
Volunteers, students and community groups are often queuing up to help — zoo gardens are magnets for horticultural colleges, corporate volunteer days and local gardening clubs.
Salvaged and sponsored materials — polytunnel frames, water butts, raised bed kits and tools are frequently donated or sponsored when local businesses see the story behind them.
Start small, scale smart — a single herb bed by the elephant house or a browse hedge along a service road proves the concept before any bigger investment.
Grow It in Plain Sight: Edible Planting in Your Botanical Displays 🌺
Here's a clever double-win that costs virtually nothing extra: many food and browse plants are beautiful enough to earn their place in your botanical gardens and display beds. Rainbow chard, globe artichokes, fennel, nasturtiums, lavender, rosemary, sunflowers, bamboo and willow are all stunning ornamentals and valuable animal food or enrichment. Your landscaping budget suddenly becomes a food production budget too — the borders your visitors admire in July become the harvest your animals enjoy in August. That's dual-purpose planting, and it's one of the smartest tricks in sustainable zoo horticulture.
Specialist Leaf Varieties: The Secret to Constant, Reliable Supply 🍃
For many collections, the real prize isn't vegetables at all — it's browse. Specialist and specific leaf varieties grown on your own grounds mean a consistent, year-round, guaranteed supply of the foliage your animals actually need:
Willow, mulberry, hazel, lime and bamboo — coppiced on rotation, these deliver dependable cut-and-come-again browse for primates, hoofstock, elephants and giant tortoises.
Species-specific plantings — collections holding specialist folivores (think leaf-eating monkeys, koalas, or browsers with narrow dietary needs) gain a huge welfare and husbandry advantage from dedicated leaf plots that remove reliance on unpredictable external suppliers.
Browse banks and hedgerows — planted along perimeters, service roads and unused margins, they turn dead space into productive space at near-zero cost.
Seasonal security — home-grown browse can be harvested fresh, frozen, dried or ensiled, smoothing out the winter supply gaps that plague bought-in browse.
A well-planned browse plantation is an investment that pays back for decades — and it starts with cuttings that often cost nothing at all.
The Trailblazers: Zoos Getting It Gloriously Right
🌱 Durrell — Jersey Zoo (UK): The Organic Farm Benchmark
If you want the gold standard, look no further than Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust's Jersey Zoo. Their on-site organic farm uses an eco-friendly "no-dig" growing method to protect soil health and keep production going all year round. The results are stunning — the farm has produced around 3,000kg of food in a single year, with most of that produce going straight into the diets of some of the world's rarest and most endangered species.
Across five polytunnels, a fruit cage and open field plots, Durrell grows a seasonal range of fruit and vegetables — and here's the kicker: in 2022 they invested in a compost shredding machine that processes animal waste, bedding and landscaping green waste from across the site. As Durrell themselves put it, the zoo produces copious amounts of zoo poo compost every year — so there's never a shortage of rich, organic material to feed the farm soil and zoo grounds. That's the circular economy in glorious, muck-spreading action!
🌿 Paignton Zoo (UK): Vertical Growing Pioneers
Devon's Paignton Zoo made headlines as one of the first zoos in the world to install a vertical hydroponic growing system, producing fresh leafy greens for its animals in a fraction of the space of conventional beds. It proved a powerful point: even collections with limited land can produce meaningful volumes of fresh food — and turn the growing system itself into a fascinating public exhibit about the future of sustainable food.
💩 Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle (USA): The Legend of "Zoo Doo"
Across the Atlantic, Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo has turned animal waste into a beloved community institution. Their famous "Zoo Doo" compost — made from the manure of the zoo's herbivores mixed with bedding and browse — is so popular with local gardeners that it sells out through a lottery system! It diverts hundreds of tonnes of waste from landfill, generates revenue, and gives the public a joyful, tangible connection to the zoo's sustainability mission. Who knew poo could build such brand love?
⚡ Detroit Zoo (USA): Powering Up with Poo
The Detroit Zoo went a step further, installing an anaerobic digester that converts over 400 tonnes of animal manure and food scraps a year into renewable energy — enough to help power its animal hospital — while the digestate becomes nutrient-rich organic fertiliser for gardens. Waste in, watts and wonderful compost out!
Zoo Poo: Your Most Underrated Asset
Let's say it loud and proud: animal manure is not waste — it's a resource! Every elephant, rhino, giraffe, zebra and tortoise in your collection is a tireless compost-ingredient factory. Well-managed zoo manure composting delivers:
Free, high-quality organic soil improver for your growing beds, borders and grounds
Dramatically reduced waste disposal costs and landfill diversion
Lower greenhouse gas emissions compared with landfilling organic waste
A cracking good story for press, social media, education teams and sponsors
A sensible note from your consultants: herbivore manure (elephant, giraffe, zebra, hoofstock, tortoise) is the star ingredient, composted hot and matured properly before use on food crops. Carnivore and primate waste needs separate, more careful handling — and that's precisely where good protocols, risk assessments and biosecurity planning come in. (Yes, we can help with that!)
Plan NOW for Next Summer's Harvest 🌞
The best summer gardens are built in autumn and winter. Here's your seasonal countdown:
Now (autumn/winter): Audit your space — south-facing borders, unused paddock corners, roof space, poly-tunnel sites. Start your zoo poo compost bays and hot-composting systems so material matures in time. Order seeds for herbs, salads, squash, beans and enrichment spice crops.
Late winter: Build no-dig beds Durrell-style — cardboard, compost, done! Sow early crops under cover. Engage keepers and nutrition teams on wish-lists: what would they love to harvest for their animals?
Spring: Plant out, mulch generously with matured zoo poo compost, and launch your visitor-facing "Grown at the Zoo" signage and education trail.
Summer: Harvest, feed, enrich, celebrate — and shout about it to your visitors, members and accreditors!
Key Takeaways (For the Busy Zoo Professional)
On-site organic growing cuts costs, food miles and packaging while boosting animal welfare and nutrition
It doesn't need to be expensive — no-dig beds, free zoo poo compost, volunteers and salvaged materials make start-up costs minimal
Dual-purpose planting puts edible and browse species directly into botanical garden displays — beautiful for visitors, harvestable for animals
Specialist leaf varieties (willow, mulberry, bamboo, species-specific browse) grown on site guarantee a constant, reliable year-round supply
Durrell's Jersey Zoo proves the model: no-dig organic farming + on-site composting = ~3,000kg of food per year for endangered species
Paignton Zoo shows space is no barrier with vertical growing; Woodland Park Zoo and Detroit Zoo show zoo poo can generate community goodwill, revenue and even renewable energy
Zoo poo composting is the foundation — start bays now so compost is ready for spring
Autumn/winter is the planning window for next summer's growing season — don't wait!
Visitor engagement, staff pride and sustainability accreditation benefits come as standard
Let's Grow Something Brilliant Together
Whether you're a major zoological society or a passionate independent animal collection, embracing organic vegetable, herb and spice growing on zoo grounds is one of the most rewarding, visible and achievable sustainability wins available to you — and the planning season is right now.
Animal Insights Consultancy Ltd offers practical, tailored support in zoo sustainability planning, animal nutrition integration, waste-to-compost systems, horticultural site audits and visitor engagement strategy. We combine deep animal collection expertise with genuine hands-in-the-soil enthusiasm — because we believe the best zoos of tomorrow will be growing, composting, closed-loop champions.
🌻 Ready to turn your zoo poo into next summer's harvest? Get in touch with Animal Insights Consultancy Ltd today — and let's get growing!
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