Ueno Zoo Uses Recycled Meals: Animals are Delighted

The Ueno Zoo, one of Japan's best-known zoos, has been recycling waste material for animal feed since 2002. Currently six types of recycled meals are fed to the animals.

Five hippopotamuses gobble up 18 kilograms of fresh bean curd pressings delivered every day by a nearby tofu maker. A massive amount of bread crust is regularly delivered twice a week courtesy of a bakery. Bread crust is a great favorite of elephants and polar bears.

A fishery company in Niigata Prefecture provides spawned salmon, which are usually discarded, to the delight of brown and polar bears.

Niigata is also famous for a type of carp called brocade carp. These are culled several times before they are shipped to market. Although culled carp are utilized for various purposes, more than 90 percent of them are disposed of. Shipments of 100 kilograms of culled carp have been sent to the zoo several times for the bears, pelicans, and storks.

Black bass and bluegill from Nagano Prefecture are the favorites of pelicans and polar bears. These fish originally come from North America and were introduced into Japan 30 years ago. Their numbers have greatly increased and they are pushing out native Japanese fish species. The Nagano fishery department catches and sends them to the zoo.

Those involved provide both the foodstuffs and delivery fees as gifts to the zoo, which gets meals for the animals at almost no cost. The zoo saves several million yen (U.S.$ 1 equals about 119 yen) annually due to this project.

However, it is not easy to expand the repertoire of recycled meals, because the quality must be fit for human consumption, and yet be close to the animal's natural diet.




Posted: 2003/07/21 10:48:57 AM
Japanese version