As the holiday season draws to a close, many households in England are left wondering what to do with their used Christmas trees. While some trees are left on curbsides for disposal or taken to recycling centers, one zoo in Bristol has found a unique and beneficial way to repurpose them.
Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm has been running a Christmas tree donation program for five years now, inviting local residents to bring in their discarded trees rather than throwing them away.
This initiative serves a dual purpose—helping the environment by diverting trees from landfills and enriching the lives of the zoo’s many residents, including elephants, rhinos, spectacled bears, and even tiny meerkats. Over the years, the zoo has successfully repurposed around 15,000 trees, reducing unnecessary waste while providing their animals with a valuable source of enrichment.
Chris Wilkinson, the zoo’s curator, emphasizes how the donated trees positively impact the animals. He notes that different species interact with them in various ways. For example, the elephants find them not only entertaining but also edible, while the spectacled bears and rhinos enjoy foraging around them.
“Some, like their elephants, like to eat them, while others like the spectacled bears and rhinos, like to forage in between them,” Wilkinson shared.
Beyond foraging, the trees also serve as an engaging sensory experience for the animals. Some creatures, like the rhinos, enjoy rubbing up against the rough bark, savoring the lingering pine scent. For smaller species, such as meerkats, the trees provide an exciting new landscape to explore.
“These meerkats live as a mob, and they have a group structure,” explains Larry Bush, one of the farm’s wildlife biologists, to BBC.
“So when we create a new stimulation inside their space like these Christmas trees, they’re really curious, they’re foraging in the trees, they’re using all of their senses to explore this new enrichment,” he adds.
The zoo’s elephants, in particular, benefit from the trees in a unique way. Because their enclosure is covered in sand, the keepers have the ability to bury the trees upright, simulating a small forest for the elephants to navigate and investigate.
“For the elephants—their habitat is full of sand, which means we can bury the trees and stand them up to make a whole forest for them to come and explore,” Wilkinson told the BBC. “They’ll eat them a bit, they’ll throw them around, they’ll explore for the food we put in.”
Another recipient of the festive leftovers this year was the zoo’s spectacled bears, a species native to the Andes Mountains. Instead of simply stacking the trees into a large pile, the zookeepers planted them throughout the bears’ enclosure, transforming the space into a mini forest.
This setup encouraged the bears to engage in natural behaviors, such as climbing, sniffing, and foraging, similar to how a domestic dog would joyfully romp through a pile of autumn leaves.
The initiative at Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm is just one of several creative ways that Brits are finding new purposes for their Christmas trees. In Yorkshire, for example, an eco-friendly business rents out live potted Christmas trees to families during the holiday season. Once the festivities conclude, the trees are returned and replanted, allowing them to continue growing and be used again the following year.
For trees that have grown too large or have begun to wither, another sustainable solution has been implemented. In areas such as Calder Valley, where flooding has posed a significant challenge in recent years, old Christmas trees are repurposed as natural flood defenses. Their trunks and branches help to slow down water runoff and stabilize the soil, ultimately reducing the risk of damage to local villages that have been impacted by severe flooding.
By repurposing Christmas trees in various ways—whether as zoo enrichment, reusable holiday decorations, or flood protection—communities across England are finding innovative ways to minimize waste while benefiting wildlife and the environment.
Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm’s program, in particular, highlights how something as simple as a discarded tree can bring immense joy and enrichment to animals, while simultaneously helping to reduce the strain on local landfills.
Through such efforts, the holiday spirit of giving extends far beyond December, demonstrating that with a little creativity, even something as seemingly insignificant as an old Christmas tree can make a meaningful difference in the world.
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