Colchester Zoo reveal how they keep the animals cool in the summer
Techniques include fish and meat ice lollies
Last updated 21st Jul 2022
Meat and vegetable ice lollies, mud wallowing and meals frozen in ice blocks – any of these sound appealing?
Probably not to you and me, but they’re all things the animals at Colchester Zoo love to help them keep cool.
All throughout summer, keepers at the zoo go out of their way to keep their animals comfortable, meaning the zoo was well prepared for the heat wave earlier this week, which saw record temperatures across the county.
Ang Matthews is Head Keeper: "It wasn't just a flash in the pan decision to start giving out ice and things in the last day or two days, this is something that we do here on a regular basis."
She says methods can vary: "We set up sprinklers for some of the animals, give them opportunities to get under the water, we give them ice cubes and nice, cold, wet towels for them to lie on."
When we caught up with Ang, she was feeding the Otters some ice cubes made of fish blood, a treat she says lots of the animals like: "We offer a lot of them to the carnivores too, so that would be more based on their red meat - things like horse and beef blood, we'll freeze that for them.
"With our primates too, we'll give them cubes of frozen fruit and vegetables."
The zoo will continue to provide ice enrichment to the animals throughout the hot weather.