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CNN Live At Daybreak
What Happens to World's Most Famous Holiday Tree?
Aired January 17, 2003 - 05:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Most of us just throw out our Christmas tree at the end of the season.
But as our Jeanne Moos reports, that's not what happens to the world's most famous holiday tree.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Do you recognize the tree trunk Manny the Monkey is hugging? Or do we have you stumped?
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Light the tree!
MOOS: First, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree brought joy to the world.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: He rules the world...
MOOS: Now it's bringing joy to the goats and the otter and the polar bears.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Polar bear! Polar bear!
MOOS: Check out the latest in tree ornaments, frozen fish. About 35 slices, stumps and boughs from the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree ended up here at the Central Park Zoo, where animals are eating off them and playing on them. Take the goats.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They just love stumps. They love to climb. They're climbing animals.
MOOS: So are the kids of the folks who once had the tree in their yard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And our children used to climb in it.
MOOS: Now snow monkeys are hanging out in it, grabbing fruit, shoveling up Cheerios. It's all part of the Central Park Zoo's animal enrichment program.
SENIOR WILD ANIMAL KEEPER, CENTRAL PARK ZOO: It's stimulating the animal mentally, letting it use its brain a little bit.
MOOS: And when the fish is gone, Gus starts looking for peanut butter in those holes. The idea is to mimic foraging. When you tell zoo goers... (on camera): But that is no mere stump. That is the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
(voice-over): They tend to like the idea of the tree being recycled. Aaron the Otter is using a slice of the tree as a stage of sorts, where her keeper trains her. The African pygmy goats even sleep on their stumps.
(on camera): Do they ever fight over the Rockefeller Center stumps?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, like you see, they'll push each other out of the way to get on.
MOOS (voice-over): And Othello the Steer gets excited whenever his keepers bring him the crown of the tree, the tippy top, where the star used to be.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Oh come let us adore him.
MOOS: Othello adores licking peanut butter and butting against the branches to scratch.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Seven monkeys munching, seven goats a leaping, three bears a chewing, one cow a butting and an otter on the Rock tree.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, good.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 17, 2003 - 05:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Most of us just throw out our Christmas tree at the end of the season.
But as our Jeanne Moos reports, that's not what happens to the world's most famous holiday tree.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Do you recognize the tree trunk Manny the Monkey is hugging? Or do we have you stumped?
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Light the tree!
MOOS: First, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree brought joy to the world.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: He rules the world...
MOOS: Now it's bringing joy to the goats and the otter and the polar bears.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Polar bear! Polar bear!
MOOS: Check out the latest in tree ornaments, frozen fish. About 35 slices, stumps and boughs from the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree ended up here at the Central Park Zoo, where animals are eating off them and playing on them. Take the goats.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They just love stumps. They love to climb. They're climbing animals.
MOOS: So are the kids of the folks who once had the tree in their yard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And our children used to climb in it.
MOOS: Now snow monkeys are hanging out in it, grabbing fruit, shoveling up Cheerios. It's all part of the Central Park Zoo's animal enrichment program.
SENIOR WILD ANIMAL KEEPER, CENTRAL PARK ZOO: It's stimulating the animal mentally, letting it use its brain a little bit.
MOOS: And when the fish is gone, Gus starts looking for peanut butter in those holes. The idea is to mimic foraging. When you tell zoo goers... (on camera): But that is no mere stump. That is the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
(voice-over): They tend to like the idea of the tree being recycled. Aaron the Otter is using a slice of the tree as a stage of sorts, where her keeper trains her. The African pygmy goats even sleep on their stumps.
(on camera): Do they ever fight over the Rockefeller Center stumps?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, like you see, they'll push each other out of the way to get on.
MOOS (voice-over): And Othello the Steer gets excited whenever his keepers bring him the crown of the tree, the tippy top, where the star used to be.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Oh come let us adore him.
MOOS: Othello adores licking peanut butter and butting against the branches to scratch.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Seven monkeys munching, seven goats a leaping, three bears a chewing, one cow a butting and an otter on the Rock tree.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, good.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
