Urgent Bamboo appeal!

Drusillas Park, East Sussex, are appealing for bamboo donations after their hungry red pandas have chomped their way through a little more than anticipated.

Demonstrating a very healthy appetite, resident red pandas Mulan and Maja, have kept their Keepers busily searching for more and more food.

Keeping the red pandas satisfied with enough roots and shoots is an ongoing battle for the award-winning zoo in Alfriston. The duos appetite for bamboo is insatiable, with each individual consuming up to 2kg a day.

Head Zoo Keeper, Sophie Leadbitter commented: “Our own plantation has been struggling to keep up with the pandas’ enormous appetite, if any green fingered individuals out there have some fresh bamboo they can spare for our red pandas, we would be so grateful!”

Any bamboo is good as long as it's tall, fresh, healthy plants. Black bamboo is a particular red panda favourite, and both Mulan and Maja enjoy small, leafy stems. The bamboo needs to be fresh cut on the day, so Zookeepers can get it straight into storage and keep it fresh for our pandas. Staff can collect within a 15-mile radius of Drusillas. If you are a little further away and are able to deliver, Zookeepers would be very grateful.

Sophie Leadbitter said, “Normally we would look to our own grounds to supply the required bamboo, but our gardening team have now had to ask us to stop ‘raiding’ their bamboo as there is very little left. We are therefore appealing to the public to help.”

If you would like to donate and help our pandas, please contact Drusillas via their Facebook page www.facebook.com/drusillaspark, email them at [email protected] or call on 01323 874100.