BARABOO, Wis. — Now that Santa has visited, you may be wondering what to do with your Christmas tree. The Ochsner Park Zoo in Baraboo will take it off your hands, and the animals will thank you for your donation.
Every year, the zoo collects Christmas trees after the holidays to give its animals something to enjoy, zoo manager Katie Gries said. Usually, they get around 30 or more each year.
“Different animals use them for different things,” she explained. “Our goats and pigs, as you can see, will eat them, they’ll rub their horns on them, our emus might lay behind them as a wind block, our beavers and bears rip them apart and turn them into bedding, so we make great use of them.”
After the trees provide human residents of Baraboo a season of enjoyment, they can then serve as enrichment tools for the animals while also giving humans a fun scavenger hunt experience.
“It’s always good for the animals to express natural behaviors, and giving them actual items like trees and plants like that allow them to exhibit those natural behaviors,” Gries said, “and it’s a lot of fun because a lot of people like to come and point out their trees and which tree is in which exhibit.”
Before dropping off a tree, residents should make sure there is no tinsel, flame retardant spray or spray-on glitter on it. Trees can be left in the parking lot by the zoo’s brown maintenance shed.
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