The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Cones a treat for ice bears
A road builder has provided toys for polar bears at Kincraig’s Highland Wildlife Park.
Wills Bros John Paul Joint Venture, which is currently dualling a nearby stretch of A9, has donated 50 traffic cones to the park. The three bears – Walker, Arktos and Victoria – have been spotted frolicking with the cones, throwing them up into the air and hiding things inside them.
The park’s musk ox have, meanwhile, been playing with drainage pipes also donated by the company.
The materials, which had already been used in theA9 construction project, would normally have been disposed of.
Excess greenery felled as part of the roadworks was also donated and used as animal feed.
Over the festive period, five tree stumps were given to the park for the musk ox, Japanese macaques, bison, Bactrian camels and yak to use within their enclosures along with tree bark, pine needles and wood chips which provided soft flooring for three new animal enclosures, one housing wildcat.
Work to dual the A9 between Kincraig and Dalraddy began last September and is scheduled for completion in summer 2017.
Park spokesman Douglas Richardson said :“We’ re delighted. The animals have been making good use of the various items, which are being used for enrichment purposes as well as for bedding and flooring in a number of enclosures.”