Mansfield Zoo spends more than $170,000 a year feeding its animals, sourcing as much fresh produce as it can without breaking the bank.
The private zoo is owned by Bronwen Wilson and Dave Murphy, who take care of about 220 animals — from Capuchin monkeys to white lions.
Recently the zoo acquired two maned wolves, which Mr Murphy described as “foxes on steroids”.
“They’re from South America and have quite a fussy diet,” he said.
“They get rabbit, goat and even quail if we can find some. They also have a mixture of boiled rice and fruit.”
The maned wolves were a long time coming for the zoo, which anticipated their arrival in mid-2020.
The young pair of females from Griffith’s Altina Wildlife Park ended up arriving 18 months later, in December 2021.
“We thought getting rabbit and goat wouldn’t be a problem,” Mr Murphy said.
“Bronwen rang a guy who shoots rabbits up near Cobram and he was getting 100 rabbits a night and was happy to pass some our way.
“When they finally arrived last week, we checked back in and he said there were no more rabbits because myxomatosis was going around. The rain creates mosquitoes which transfer myxo to the rabbits.”
The shooter estimates the rabbits will return directly after Christmas as Victoria dries off.
“Luckily Altina sent them down with enough rabbits to last awhile. I’m chasing a goat farmer now but he just thinned out his males so he dosen’t have much either,” Mr Murphy said.
“When it comes to food, I’m the one who sources it, butchers it and carts it.”
Mr Murphy was born and raised on a Deniliquin farm and spent the bulk of his working life managing cattle and horse properties.
“People ask how I can stand to butcher them (cattle and horses) but everything needs to eat and it’s better than letting an animal live in misery,” Mr Murphy said.
“We get a lot of cattle which the saleyards or abattoirs won’t accept because of injuries. Farmers will ring us up because the Seymour knackery doesn’t come out here any more unless you front a few hundred dollars.”
These injuries include spots on the eye, prolapsed uterus and broken bones.
When the COVID-19 pandemic caused mass job losses, many hobby horse owners were forced to let their ponies go, resulting in a flood of horse meat.
The cheap meat helped places like Mansfield Zoo stay in budget, while cattle and lamb prices surged.
The four lions alone eat 500 to 600kg of raw meat each week.
Another big stroke of luck was the dry weather lifting, resulting in consistent rains, rapid grass growth and cutting the zoo’s hay costs.
“I’m doing more mowing than feeding,” Mr Murphy said.
“We buy our good quality hay in from the Goulburn Valley, a fella above Shepparton.
“He is good to us and knows we’ve got a standing order of five semi-loads. He doesn’t muck us around with prices.”
The Bunbartha farmer supplies Mansfield Zoo with oaten and lucerne hay, which is fed out to the American bison, water buffalo, Texas longhorn cattle and others.
Lower quality grass hay is used for hardier animals like the kangaroos, deer and camel.
This grass hay is grown and cut by Mr Murphy on a few lease blocks along the Delatite River.
“The wallabies and that sort will just pick through the hay and two thirds gets spoiled. It mainly gets used for bedding so you don’t want to be paying $60 a roll for it,” he said.
Ms Wilson said the quality of their Delatite River hay varied from year to year and “while the deer will eat anything, everything else needs the better quality stuff” from Bunbartha.
The zoo is also doing its part to reduce food waste, collecting rejected produce from Mansfield Foodworks and IGA almost daily.
“The amount of waste is phenomenal,” Ms Wilson said.
“It’s good for us however. I just picked up a bunch of spinach this morning which was fresh but smelt funny so they couldn’t sell it.”
In the feed shed, Mr Murphy has the worming dates for all the animals written on a whiteboard beside the cold-room.
“It is crazy how many people ask me ‘do you ever feed the lions live animals?’,” he said.
“It used to be young hunters who asked that but recently it’s always women. I can’t understand it.
“Not only is it highly unethical, you do everything you can to keep the lions quiet. They wouldn’t know what to do with it — they’d play with it, sit on it and it would die very slowly.”
With the Victorian Government swearing off lockdowns, the zoo is forging ahead with plans to build a covered arena.
“It can be booked out for horse and cattle shows or community events,” Ms Wilson said.
“It will also act as a fire refuge. When the fire happened (Black Summer) we had people fleeing the fire calling us and asking if we would accept their animals.
“There is a place of last refuge near Merrijig which accepts livestock, but Merrijig was near the fire.”
Once construction is complete in early 2022, it will be the first covered area for hire in the district.