Be a Part Of The Local Community & Make a Difference

The Alice Springs Desert Park is embarking on an exciting and ambitious project – the Desert Farm. Our quest is to grow and harvest native Central Australian food in order to feed the wildlife in the Park’s collection. No on has attempted a project of this calibre!

The Desert Park is always looking for better ways to improve our practices, ensure the highest quality of welfare for the wildlife in our collection and reduce the environmental footprint of our operation.

Currently, the Park’s captive wildlife largely eats food that has been transported from the coastal regions of Australia. This generates an unnecessary carbon footprint and can result in reduced variation in the diets of our animals. The Desert Farm will enable us to provide natural diets. Our animal collection will gain both behaviourally and nutritionally. The animal food will be presented as whole fruits and seed heads, rather than as refrigerated foods and individual seeds.

Why are we doing this?

Environmental Benefits
As is the case with most captive wildlife, animal food is obtained from human food sources. This means that the items are transported large distances from the coastal regions of Australia. By growing local foods we will reduce our ‘food miles’ and carbon footprint. We will also provide food with which the animals have evolved.

It Makes Sense!
The Desert Farm is a mixture of botanic garden and wildlife park. These elements have always been inextricably linked. Now, we are bringing them together in an exciting way.

Nutritional Value
As the foods grown become more varied and as we will be able to feed whole foods, the wildlife collection will gain nutritionally as well as displaying better behavioural enrichment outcomes.

How can you be involved?
There is a wide array of opportunities to be involved with the Desert Farm ranging from individual participation to group involvement from the corporate sector. All assistance will ultimately aid the Desert Park in reducing its ‘food miles’, benefit the Park’s wildlife and provide the Alice Springs community with a new, exciting and environmentally sustainable project.

To find out more about the opportunities to be involved contact the Alice Springs Desert Park at asdp@nt.gov.au