Hello everyone, how are you？
I joined an event yesterday with my family.
Did you know that African elephants in Kumamoto zoo have been eating the grass from Aso grassland over 30 years?
In morning, we met at parking lot located at the foot of Mt.Kishima which is one of Aso 5 peaks.
After the introduction from Aso Kuju National Park staff and vets and keepers from Kumamoto zoo, we enjoyed searching all the different kind of wildflowers at Aso grassland.
It was the area our community did Noyaki, the controlled burning in spring. It was fun to see how it looks like now in fall.
After we learned about Aso grassland, it was the time to cut the grass for Elephants!
African savanna has more than 600 kinds of plants and that’s what African elephants eat.
30 years ago, a zoo keeper thought the grass from Aso must be good for their health, since then 2 African elephants at Kumamoto zoo have been eating the grass from Aso.
They eat 60 kg a day for each, so what we cut and brought yesterday was not enough…. They have a system that the certain amount of grass gets wrapped and shipped periodically.
Children cut the grass and carried dried grass to the zoo truck.
It was a warm day, but it was fun to work outside!
After the lunch break, we met at Kumamoto zoo again.
The precipitation in Aso is double of the average of Japan. Aso grassland holds a lot of water and Aso is the water source for 5 million people in Kyushu.
Especially at Kumamoto city, even the tap water is the ground water from Aso.
There is Ezuko, a big lake right next of Kumamoto zoo which is made by the ground water from Aso. Animals at Kumamoto zoo use the water from this lake.
There was a fountain near the south gate of zoo, the vet said that it saved the life of animals when the tap water stopped after the big earthquake 6 years ago.
We are living at Aso and we feel the blessing of nature all the time, but it was interesting to hear the story that Aso is important even for Kumamoto city people.
When we arrived at the zoo, the grass we collected was already there.
Now it is the exciting time!
Children behaved really well. All the kids listened to the zoo keeper, and they were calm and nice to the elephants.
Elephant looked happy with various grass menu from Aso !!
And kids were happy to see it 🙂
It became really nice day for us to learn more about Aso, where we live. I hope it was interesting for you, too 🙂
Kana
