TACOMA, Wash. — An elated otter nibbling on bamboo. A clouded leopard pouncing on palm fronds. A baby musk ox doing zoomies in a pile of fall leaves. All of them are playing with plants grown at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium.
Chief horticulturist Bryon Jones says the lush landscapes that thrive in this place aren't just for beauty. They're also for dinner.
He recently took Seattle’s Ciscoe Morris on a personalized garden tour of the zoo. Free botanical tours take place at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium the last Sunday of every month, at 10 a.m.
"I feel like I'm out in a jungle, what's with all these jungle plants?” said Ciscoe, standing among palms and banana leaves.
"Where we're standing is the browse garden, so our zookeepers can come back into this area, and they can harvest these plants, like the banana, right here, for whichever animal might use it,” Jones said.
Tapirs, anoa and primates all enjoy banana leaves. The zoo’s cats love the windmill palm fronds.
“The keepers tell me that the tigers in particular like to take the fronds and they roll them up, and then they kind of rub around on them,” said Jones.
The clouded leopards play and pounce on the fronds as well.
Jones took Ciscoe to the zoo’s bamboo forest, which contains approximately 45 different kinds of bamboo, ranging from tall timber species to smaller types that grow more like grass.
“A lot of the animals actually use the bamboo,” said Jones. “Our tapirs, our goats, our muskox, there's an endless list of the animals that can eat the bamboo.” Jones said.
At the entrance to the zoo, a desert landscape thrives – and even the cactus they grow here serves as a snack. Ciscoe was invited to pluck a pad from a prickly pear cactus, using a long-handled pair of tongs – to feed to Jumbo Jet, the zoo’s radiated tortoise.
"Jumbo Jet, are ya hungry little guy? This is almost as good as a Brussel's sprout!” said Ciscoe as he proffered the prickly pear to the endangered tortoise from Madagascar.
The Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, and Bryon Jones, make sure plants thrive on this land so that the animals living here can thrive as well.
“You know, you sure are doing a great job here at the zoo, I love it. All these exotic plants and happy animals, you are one great gardener. Thanks so much for showing us this place!” Ciscoe said.
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