It’s a version of farm to table, connecting eaters with a local food source. In this case, it’s garden to critter.
Mary Alice Spencer is the overseer of the bamboo crop at Zoo Montana, something she does twice a week. Yes, bamboo grows in Montana and has for several years at the zoo.
“These are northern species of bamboo. And they are good to – 5 C to -10 C so they are tough,” explained Spencer.
Bamboo is crucial to the survival of the trio of red pandas—Duli, Pabu and Pavitra-- that call ZooMontana home says their caretaker Allyson Dredla.
“We are spending $200 every single week to buy 20lbs of bamboo for our 3 red pandas. Our 2 younger ones, they just go to town on that bamboo. Lots of fiber, lots of munching. Keeps them busy every day so we need it,” said Dredla.
What bamboo is grown at the zoo is not enough to replace one of those weekly shipments but Spencer thinks of her crop like that fresh produce we humans yearn for every summer.
“The difference between what they purchase commercially and what we grow here It’s like that red lump that we get at the grocery store in the winter and that red juicy tomato we buy at the farmers market. Because this so fresh, it hasn’t been cut for very long before it shows up in their enclosure to knosh on,” Spencer said.
Dredla said the red pandas savor those shoots of Spencer’s carefully cultivated crop. Just motivation that keeps Mary Alice back every few days pulling weeds and cultivating bamboo.
