Fallen Live Tree

    I'm not sure about every tree, but this tree in the forest certainly made a big sound. Around 8:30 in the morning, zoo staff was alarmed by a loud crack followed by a bassy thud. The sound was loud enough for other departments in Brookgreen Gardens to hear it. There was no lightning around so we figured a whole tree toppled over.

      We hurried down to our barn area and saw that a huge live oak limb had fallen near our chicken exhibit, crushing part of the fencing but luckily missing the chicken coop and all of our chickens. Zoo staff gathered up the slightly ruffled chickens and relocated them to an off exhibit holding area until their enclosure can be fixed.

      Live oak trees can live to be over 200 years old. One of the oldest in America is located right here in South Carolina. It is about 100 miles south of Brookgreen Gardens near John Island. Its name is Angel Oak and it is estimated to be between 500 and 1500 years old! Live oaks are the heaviest native hardwood weighing a little over 50 pounds per cubic feet when dry.

     We are glad none of our animals got hurt and we quickly saw the silver lining to this huge limb coming down. We grabbed a couple cart fulls of limbs and delivered them to different animals throughout the zoo. Our spanish goats and red devon cows loved all the browse we gave them. We also aquired a lot of gnarly limbs so keep an eye out for them in our aviaries shortly!

     Zoo staff would like to thank everyone from horticulture, landscaping, security, and Mike from DNR for acting so swiftly to get the zoo up and running in no time.