A New Forest farm owner is offering a novel and alternative solution to people looking to dispose of their Christmas trees - by feeding them to her alpacas.
The festive plants provide a nutritious source of food for the South American animals whilst saving landfill space.
Farm owner Sue Sears, 55, made the appeal for donations on Facebook two days ago and has been inundated with responses from householders seeking somewhere to dump their trees now Christmas is over.
She said: "We have got around 84 alpacas at the moment.
"We take the trees around the farm and give a couple in each field.
"It's a way of disposing of a Christmas tree without taking up landfill or burning them.
"It's also enriching for our animals."
Mrs Sears runs Petlake Alpacas of the New Forest in Bartley, with her husband Brian.
The farm owner said both goats and alpacas enjoy grazing on the unusual food.
She said the needles are healthy snacks for both alpacas and goats, and by the time they have finished eating them they are often left with just a branch - which they later shred.
So far this year, Mrs Sears has received 20 trees but they expect many more to be donated in the next few weeks.
Mrs Sears added: "I'm sure that everyone has got local farms to see if they are interested in taking the trees."
She said she got the idea after seeing how a friend's goats enjoyed eating them.
Discussing how it came about, she said: "I saw that one of my friends was doing it with her goats and I thought, I will see if they like our tree - which they did.
"So, I said to our friends 'We will take your trees' and I put a post out on Facebook."
She cannot accept trees which have been chemically treated, however.
"If we suspect that they have had any chemical treatment we put them to each side," she said. "Then the rest of them, we put a couple in each paddock for the animals to eat at their own leisure."
There are around 25,000 alpacas being kept in Britain. They are farmed mainly for their wool.
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