Cheyenne Mountain Zoo using shipping container to grow produce on site
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)-- The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is getting creative when it comes to getting food to their plant-eating animals.
In July of 2021, the zoo started using an old shipping container to make a garden.
"It grows things hydroponically, and we’re experimenting with growing about half of the zoo's lettuce," said Bob Chastain, the president and CEO of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
The goal is one day to grow 80% of their fresh food and 55% of the lettuce that goes to feeding the giraffes. The zoo goes through about 3,500 heads of lettuce a month. It's an idea that came from dealing with the struggles of COVID-19.
"Fresh produce gets delivered to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo twice a week, and so when you kind of think about that if the grocery stores shut down, if there were recalls, if there were those sorts of things then we realized that we’d be in a situation where we couldn’t get this fresh produce that we needed," said Chastain.
Just over a month ago, the giraffes, orangutans, and wallabies got to try out some of the new fresh food. Currently, they’re producing about 230 heads of lettuce a week – that’s between 30 and 50 pounds.
"It’s awesome, they’ve been working really hard on this," said Chastain.
Going forward, the zoo wants to build more shipping containers. They'll be a part of the remodel to the front of the zoo. Visitors will be able to walk through the containers.
