We’ve been helping to spread the conservation message by donating two tonnes of rhino poo to the National Botanical Gardens to help fertilise their rare African plants.

Nkosi and Manyara, our beautiful eastern black rhinos, each produce around 25kg of poo every day – so it didn’t take long to gather enough to make a rather ‘pongy’ special delivery!

Although it is common to use horse manure to help fertilise soil, we think it’s a first to donate rhino poo – so we can’t wait to see the results.

The National Botanical Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire is home to the Great Glasshouse, a hugely impressive single-span glass house – the largest of its kind in the world! It houses plants from the Mediterranean, Australia, and America, as well as Africa.

Our rhino keeper Jack says:

[Pullout] “Just like the eastern black rhinos, a lot of the flowers in the Botanic Gardens’ Glasshouse are rare, so the initial idea developed as a result of the link between the rhinos and the exotic plants”. [/Pullout]

Head of Marketing and Communications at the Botanical Gardens, David Hardy, said:

[Pullout] “The rhino’s plant-rich diet means that their poo is filled with nutrients that will really help the flowers grow. It will be rotted down and used on our African flowers, such as the King Protea, which is the national flower of South Africa”. [/Pullout]

He continued:

[Pullout] “We share a lot in common with Folly Farm, as we work to protect and preserve our plants, just as they do with their rhinos.” [/Pullout]

So although rhino poo wouldn’t be the first thing we’d pop onto our Christmas list, we’re glad to have given this rather unusual gift to the Botanical Gardens and hope the plants thrive as a result!