Barranquilla zoo animals get ice cream and cold showers
By Manuel Rueda, Editorial Director
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
The high temperatures hitting much of Colombia are also affecting more than 500 animals living in the Barranquila City Zoo prompting zookeepers there to find innovative ways to cool the furry creatures down.
According to reports by El Tiempo, zoo animals are being fed with fruity ice cream pallets, iced fruit concentrate, and frozen chunks of meat, while the largest and most hairy of the bunch are being hosed with cool water on a regular basis, entertaining visitors as they watch the animals react to the unexpected showers.
Day time temperatures in Barranquilla are currently peaking at 33 degrees Celsius, threatening to dehydrate the inhabitants of the city Zoo or to raise their blood pressure to unsustainable levels, according to Dave Wehkeding, a local vet who heads the Zoo’s Animal Welfare Department.
In order to avoid any animal casualties, a dozen zoo employees have created a brigade that organizes refreshing activities for the different species living there.
Zaira and Osungo are the zoo’s spectacled bears. Their species comes from the cool Andean mountains, so in sweltering Barranquilla, this pair of bears has a swimming pool in which zookeepers throw hundreds of ice cubes that help these furry mammals to keep cool.
The Dantas – an Amazonian mammal – are served carrot ice cream in a big plastic jug, while the snakes and the hairy ant-eaters are permanently hosed with cold water.
The zoo’s felines are usually not so keen on baths, so zoo-keepers have found other ways to cool these creatures down, supplying lions and tigers with large chunks of frozen meat which are suspended above them on large hooks, so that the animals also do some exercise to obtain their refreshing food.
Keeping 500 animals cool is a large enterprise according to zookeepers. Since temperatures began to rise, the zoo’s kitchen has produced 1,000 popsicles, 100 bottles of frozen water, and thousands of ice cubes and large blocks of ice that are stored in the kitchen freezer.
“Everything we are making here is natural,” said vet Cesar Rojano, “there is no sugar --in the popsicles -- and no chemical additives. The important thing is to refresh the animals with frozen foods.”
The Barranquilla zoo is located on 77th Street #68-40 and can be visited Monday through Sunday from 9am to 5pm.
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