A Toronto city councillor is looking into ways to save the High Park zoo, which is set to close as part of the city's recently approved budget cuts.

The zoo, free to the public, costs $200,000 to run annually. It only has enough funding to continue operating for five more months.

John George Howard, who deeded 48 hectares of his land to create the popular west-side park in 1873, said as a condition of the deed that the park must remain free forever.

Coun. Sarah Doucette, whose ward includes the park, said she's looking into corporate and private sponsors, donation boxes and other grassroots revenue, including selling fertilizer.

"We already take the zoo poo up to our greenhouses where we convert it into fertilizer and compost," she said. "Why not bag it and sell it? High Park organic zoo poo. I want it for my vegetable garden, my rose garden."

Grade 5 and 6 students from High Park Alternative School spoke with CBC reporter Kimberly Gale about their love of the zoo Friday.

Click the video above for her full story.

With files from CBC's Kimberly Gale