1 hour ago
3
Zoos Victoria welcomes a lot of babies each year – from elephant calves to meerkat litters and hordes of butterflies. Two months ago, two lion cubs born at Werribee Open Range Zoo also joined the list.
On Tuesday, the young brother and sister who are yet to be named will be visible to the public for the first time.
But it was something different – and much older – that has thrilled Melbourne Zoo staffer Giuseppe Greco – the arrival of new shoots on one of the zoo’s most-loved trees.
After years of being at risk, it was technology and a lot of TLC that saved the sprawling 100-year-old Moreton Bay fig tree.
Greco, who as Melbourne Zoo’s sustainability resources specialist jokes that he’s a treekeeper rather than zookeeper, couldn’t be more chuffed.
“It was fantastic for us,” he said. “It was like seeing cubs being born.”
Warning signs emerged six years ago when air quality problems following the Black Summer fires caused the heritage-listed fig to show signs of severe stress by dropping leaves. The production of new shoots, which grow down to the ground and support the tree’s long, thick horizontal branches, had also stopped.
The tree had also suffered from years of being climbed on and having initials scratched into it by visitors, and the ground underneath its canopy had become hardened by being trampled-on.
The zoo’s horticulture staff not only fenced off the tree to the public and added compost to the soil from the zoo, but also installed monitoring devices to track how the tree was drinking and breathing, and when it was stressed.
“We changed how we watered it, installing a different irrigation system such as a drip line. We monitored the soil health, canopy and the temperature,” Greco said.
Quickly, new foliage started to grow, the fig’s canopy became denser and greener, and aerial roots started growing from branches.
“My reaction was, ‘Wow, that’s cool.’ That’s what we should see normally,” Greco said.
“Without the data, this could not have been possible,” he explained. “It’s important to understand on a day-to-day, even hourly basis, what’s going on.”
The tree will continue to be monitored for stress levels, as will two other trees that were also hooked up to the computer data program – an elderly sequoia, or redwood, and a towering eucalypt.
Greco said he felt honoured to have helped save the Moreton Bay fig, which he says provides shade and sustains animals such as insects, and lorikeets that feed off its seeds.
“It has a magical quality. All the older trees, they are witnesses of time. They have seen a lot of people come and go, including zoo directors and animals. A lot of marriage proposals,” he said.
“If that tree could speak, I would be very interested to sit there for months, and hear about history.”
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
