Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust - Organic Farm

Organic Farm

The Trust established its own organic farm before any establishment of its kind in the UK. The Durrell Organic Farm was created in 1976 to provide the animal collection with non-chemically treated foods such as sunflowers and maize. It provides 70% of the animals’ fruit, vegetable and forage needs over the year – produce which would otherwise cost the Trust well in excess of £20,000 to buy in commercially.

The Organic Farm grows edible flowers, such as calendula, sunflowers, hibiscus and pansies; fruit and vegetables such as cape gooseberries, tamarillos, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces, cabbages, peppers, beans, mustard, radishes, pumpkins and celery. It also provides hay and leaves, branches of hedgerow trees and ash, willow and bamboo for the Trust's animals.

All bedding from the animal enclosures, along with everything from lawn cuttings to used teabags from the staff kitchens, is recycled to create for compost for the Organic Farm, so there is no need for chemical fertilisers. The nutritional value of organic farm home-grown foods is far superior to imported foods, and feeding whole plants to animals encourages them to forage as they would in the wild. For example, the gorillas and orangutans are given whole pea and bean plants rather than picked and prepared ‘oven ready’ type that we humans prefer. This means that the animals have to spend time picking through the plants to find the tasty pods, chewing on and discarding leaves, stems and roots along the way – this type of foraging behaviour would make up much of their daily activity in the wild.