Ice lollies keep zoo animals cool

Keepers at wildlife parks in Kent and East Sussex have been keeping animals cool with mud baths and ice lollies and protecting them with sun cream.

With temperatures in the 30Cs, Port Lympne Wild Animal Park near Ashford and Drusillas in Alfriston are using different methods to beat the heat.

Elephants, rhinos and water buffaloes at Port Lympne have been wallowing in mud to lower their body temperatures.

At Drusillas, racoons, coatis and squirrel monkeys are having iced fruit.

But the zoo said the hot weather was good news for ring-tailed lemurs, which come from Madagascar.

They are well adapted to the heat and have been basking in the sun.

At Port Lympne, animal director Adrian Harland said monkeys, giraffes and ostriches had also been sunbathing and enjoying the high temperatures.

But big cats such as Siberian tigers and snow leopards, whose thick fur coats keep them warm at temperatures as low as -50C, have been staying in the shade.

Keepers have been putting sun cream on animals with skin prone to burning.

"The bigger animals are the most affected, but they all have their own different coping mechanisms to cool down," said Mr Harland.

"Animals like water buffalo, elephants and pigs like to wallow in mud, which saves their skin from sunburn and also stops the flies from attacking them.

"The keepers give them a mud bath and splatter mud on the bits they would miss, like the tender extremities that get targeted by flies.

"Tapirs spend most of their time in the rainforests of Malaysia so are not used to direct sunlight, so the keepers are making sure they are covered up with plenty of sun cream."

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Port Lympne Wild Animal Park
Drusillas
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