Zoo's Christmas tree delight for animals

A zoo has received about 100 Christmas trees as part of an appeal to help enrichment for its animals.

Hamerton Zoo Park in Cambridgeshire asked for people to donate their used trees which staff then add fish and nuts to for the three Syrian brown bears to play with.

The trees have also been placed in enclosures for the lemurs, birds and big cats.

Zookeeper Ben McRobie said: "We have given each of them their own tree to play with and decorated it not with baubles but, instead, with nuts and with fish."

The zoo received its first tree a week ago and said its resident bears had taken "time off from their sleeping to have a little play".

He said: "The trees will be used all year round. With the bears they generally get them last because they are most likely to destroy them but they get recycled from enclosure to enclosure with different animals getting their hands on the trees."

Keepers said they have received so many trees, they don't have a great need for more.

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