The adorable footage shows the moment endangered African elephants at the world’s oldest zoo munch on a pile of fallen autumn leaves leaving zookeepers with nothing to do.
Zookeepers from the Schoenbrunn Zoo, in the city of Vienna, Austria, said the elephants have left them jobless since the start of autumn, as they eat the brightly coloured autumn leaves the moment they fall on the ground.
Animal keeper Jenny Bukowski said in a statement obtained by Newsflash: “Our elephants are like leaf blowers on four legs.
“When they go outside in the morning, they pick up one leaf after another with their trunk. As elephant keepers, we almost never have to use the rake.”
Bukowski explained that she and her colleagues usually put a few apples among the massive pile of leaves in the morning, which the elephants find delicious.
The zookeeper added: “They like to stick a supply of leaves under a tusk. This means they always have something with them and can enjoy eating.”
Aside from African elephants, many other herbivores at the zoo, including hippos, Indian rhinos, water buffalos and reindeer, devour the colourful autumn leaves.
And they find linden, maple, and birch leaves particularly tasty, said Bukowski.
Schoenbrunn Zoo director Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck said: “There is hardly any other place in the city where you can experience nature as intensively as the seasons change as in the zoo.”
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Story By: Georgina Jedikovska, Sub-Editor: Georgina Jedikovska, Agency: Newsflash
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