Lollies for the lions – ice is very nice
Bloodsicles, frozen fruit treats and cold showers are just what you need when you’re a zoo animal and things are too hot to handle. Ufrieda Ho reports
YOU think you’re hot? Try draping a mane around your face or dragging around a bushy tail when the mercury is pushing 40OC.
Jozi’s heatwave has been hell. This week’s temperatures broke all records for hot days in the city.
But while you’ve been able to reach for an ice lolly, to turn up the air conditioner or post your disdain on Facebook, zoo animals have been reliant on their curators, keepers and attendants to be both inventive and attentive in helping them beat the heat.
Carnivore curator at the Johannesburg Zoo Agnes Maluleke says the first bit of real help is to make the public aware that zoo animals are not circus animals.
Although they’re in captivity and removed from their natural habitat, the animals are meant to be more about education than entertainment. Her reminder – the animals are as lethargic, drained and uncomfortable as everything and everybody else under the baking sun.
The zoo opened its doors in 1904 and at peak periods, like over December, visitor traffic volumes easily hit the 75 000 mark. For the creatures, it makes for a lot of people to “meet and greet”.
“So people who come to the zoo on these really hot days have to stop thinking they have to shout at the animals, throw things at them or tap against the glass to get them to do something.
“Animals aren’t stupid. They know they have to conserve their energy and look for shade or go into their night enclosures, where it’s cooler,” she says.
The lions may even take a dip in the moat, which at its deepest extends to 3m, but again these big cats are, as Maluleke points out, among the laziest animals around and exertion is just not their style.
Ground rules aside, she and the other curators have a few tricks to help. Maluleke likes to make ice treats for her “babies”. Think of them as lollies for lions: iced-up blood, day-old chicks, pieces of beef and some bones. For the omnivorous bears, it’s a frozen snack of dog biscuits, apples, pears and chunks of meat.
The zoo has several large chest freezers and three coolers, all of which have been working overtime these past few weeks, even though Maluleke says ice treats for animals have been a standard practice for the zoo for years.
It takes about two days for a good solid ice treat to be formed. Solid is good because the ice blocks have to withstand the heat for as long as possible. They also need to withstand pummelling from the creatures – who in this instance are really encouraged to play with their food.
Standing at the spectacled bear enclosure, her voice grows deep and authoritative. She calls out: “Tumz, Vals, come.”
From a shady corner in the silent enclosure, the bears, Tumu and Valentine, stir. They respond to her, instantly lumbering towards the railing, grunting, sniffing the air and holding Maluleke in their gaze.
“Hello guys,” she greets the bears gently, before lobbing chunks of ice flecked with the goodies she’s had prepared for them.
“They love it,” she says, watching as the pair shatter the ice shards.
At the lions’ enclosure she knows it will be Dame, “the wife” who’s going to go for her icy Frisbees first. “Triton is a typical male and a typical cat – he’s not interested in moving too much in the heat,” she says as Dame licks her bloodsicle, hoping to get to the meatier bits.
Maluleke knows her “babies” well. She knows how to entice Triton, the tawny-blonde male. She drops smaller ice chunks near the front of the enclosure before landing the biggest chunk on the grass.
As she predicts, Triton’s interest is sufficiently piqued and he braves the sun at its zenith to amble out to paw at his prize.
She says nocturnal animals, like lions, take strain in the extreme heat. They battle to get in any sleep or real rest because it’s simply too hot to get a decent snooze.
The primates are also ice-treat fans. At their enclosure, curator Katherine Visser and primates helper Brian Glendinning have iced bottles of water and orange cordial for the chimps. Other days its frozen fruit or frozen peanut clusters.
The arrival of Glendinning and Visser is enough to get the apes out of their night enclosures, where they’ve taken refuge as the sun is mercifully filtered out in these areas.
As they wait for Glendinning to throw the treats over the moat and electric fence, they seek out the shade of trees and high walls and scoop water from the moat, drinking deeply. When the bottles land with a thud in their enclosures, it’s the alpha male and other lucky chimps that get to the bottles first.
“It takes them about 10 minutes to open the bottle, or they may just rip them apart,” says Glendinning. He times them, because they get faster and smarter each time.
“Careful, my boy”, Visser says, as one of the chimps tries to use his teeth to get at the iced water. She adds: “It’s about stimulation and enrichment. Figuring out how to get at the treat helps keep them busy.”
There’s some fighting and performing but all eight chimps eventually settle into the hierarchy that determines who gets to enjoy the sweet, cold treats first.
For the zoo’s only gorilla, Mokoko, there’s no one to fight with for treats. He figures out quickly that with his huge paws he can simply peel back the plastic of a 2-litre cooldrink bottle. He licks a little at the orange-flavoured ice, then drops it when it gets too cold and licks his sticky digits instead.
Other animals that need help cooling down are the rhinos, hippos and pygmy hippos. For them, mud baths are essential.
Rhino attendant Refiloe Ramavhoya says they help them cool down and also act as a natural sunscreen. Without the caked mud on their bodies, their skin can start to crack.
Inside the rhino enclosure, which is home to the zoo’s two white rhino, Peter and Zimbi, there are two show- ers. Ramavhoya says that after their breakfast each morning, they get a cooling spritz before heading back to the shade or to their enclosures.
Good zoo design and appropriate human intervention are crucial to help animals who live out their lives in captivity. It entails enough shade and privacy for them to take shelter but not totally obscuring them from zoo visitors.
The enclosures have to have fans and temperature control for the baking, dry heat this summer.
There are also misters, but they have not been used with the severe drought gripping the country.
Enclosures also have to be warm enough in the cold months, and heating pads and heaters are used.
Climate change’s extreme weather conditions are a reality. As humans scramble to adapt and mitigate the effects, progressive zoos have to go a step further and that’s to help their charges.
Smarter and more effective measures are needed – even if they start with one blood lolly or one frozen fruit cup at a time.