Looking Beyond Beauty

A lot of thought goes into zoo landscaping and horticulture, most of which is focused around the aesthetic.  What will look good and improve the visitor experience?  What will work thematically to complement the animal exhibits?  What will practically grow well with our temperature and rainfall patterns?  These are all very important questions that should be asked.

Looking beyond that, however, we face the question of how else can plants enhance the zoo – not just the visitor experience, but the missions of education, conservation, and animal welfare?  With that in mind, here are some ideas of how specially-themed zoo gardens can add to the zoo.

Browse Gardens – Add planted areas of specific species managed to be pruned for animal feed and enrichment.  This might not be practical for every species – giant pandas go through so much bamboo that no zoo is likely to have enough on grounds (zoos with pandas often have off-site growing facilities, or send teams off to harvest bamboo from elsewhere).  Still, if you plant some willow, some mulberry, some princess tree, and a few other species, you can periodically crop a few branches to offer animals as a snack.  Even if it doesn’t leave you 100% self-sufficient, it can serve as an educational tool for visitors as to what goes into ensuring proper nutrition and enrichment for some zoo residents.

Produce Gardens – Like the browse garden, only you know that there’s no way you’ll grow nearly enough.  It could be fun to grow some tomatoes, cucumbers, or other easy-growing crops for treats, possibly in your children’s zoo (which often has farm animals already anyway).  Many Americans suffer from a growing disconnect between what they eat and where it comes from, so it would be a cool educational feature for them.  Add to the experience by throwing up a beehive and explaining how pollinators help feed us, or having a compost display to emphasize that and other green gardening practices.

Carnivorous Plants – Blur the lines between plants and animals with displays of Venus flytraps, pitcher plants, sundews, or other predatory plants.  You can even have periodic “feeding demos.”  If you’ve got the budget, spring for a larger-than-life flytrap photo op, where kids can crawl inside the “jaws” of the plant and pretend to get eaten.  Their parents will get a kick out of it for sure.

Medicinal Plants – All over the world and all throughout history, people have looked to plants to help them cure diseases, heal from injuries, and otherwise improve their lives.  They still do – new discoveries are constantly being made about plants with medicinal properties.  Consider the Madagascar periwinkle, which has properties that can be used to fight leukemia.  This makes it all the more tragic that we are losing our tropical rainforests at such an alarming rate – who knows what undiscovered remedies are being plowed under by bulldozers before we even have a chance to discover them?  This exhibit could be paired with exhibits about some animals help us treat diseases (i.e., Gila monsters and diabetes) and others, despite popular belief, do not (i.e., rhino horn and everything).

Native Plants – These are the plants that, by their nature, are going to do well on your grounds, so highlight them.  It works especially well when done in association with native animal exhibits, creating a nature trail effect.  Don’t limit yourself to trees, either – plant a wildflower garden in a meadow, or liven up a wet patch with some skunk cabbage (people will complain about the smell, but in that exaggerated, this-is-so-fun kind of way).  If you are in the southwest, cacti are your friend.  In the southeast, grow marsh plants.   Teach people how to landscape their own yards, using plants to make better habitat for wildlife.  A subset of this would be gardens specially planned to attract bees, butterflies, or hummingbirds.

It would be cool to have a garden of invasive plant pests, such as phragmites. Ailanthus tree, or multiflora rose, but then you run the risk of them just going wild and growing all over the zoo.  Trust me, it’s not like they need the help.

These are only some of the options.  You can also look at meditation gardens, prehistoric plants (paired with dinosaur statues or fossil exhibits), herb gardens, animal-themed topiary, animal-themed plants, or bonsai – and there’s nothing wrong with a formal garden now and then, especially for entry plazas, guest service areas, and other places which tend to be more neutral than exhibit areas.   Stumped?  Reach out to local gardening clubs for help.  If you are a local gardener, maybe reach out to your local zoo and see if there is a way to collaborate.

The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.