As winter
slowly turns to spring, it's becoming more bearable to be outside!
When you live in a rainy city like I do a little bit of sun can do wonders for
your mood. At my zoo, your work load changes with the seasons. My workload is
really heavy in the summer, while the winter leaves me with much more "project
time." The opposite is true for my friend that handles the North American
animals. He's most busy in the winter and summer lets him relax a little.
Warmer weather usually means the animals start perking up as well. The lions
love sun bathing. Even if it's still chilly outside the lions will lay right in the middle of the only patch of sun in their enclosure.
People often
ask me how the animals deal with cold weather. Where our zoo is located the
winter temperatures average about -1 Celsius but can drop down to -20 Celsius.
Animals that are either native or live in cold climates do just fine. This
includes our black bears, grizzly, arctic wolves, fox and Siberian tigers.
These animals have thick winter coats that insulate them against the cold and
all our animals have shelters to seek cover under when it rains.
For the
animals that are accustomed to a warmer climate, we provide them with heated
barns. We always leave a door open for them to venture outdoors if they choose,
but when they come inside their barns are heated and they are given a nice
straw bed to curl up on. If temperatures drop below -15 Celsius we will lock
the animals inside for the day. They won't want to venture outside anyways and
closing all the gates to the outdoor part of the enclosure reduces cold air in
the barn. During one of our “lock down” days I tried to pad all the cracks
between the gate and the floor with straw so that the cold air would hardly get
through, but my baboons and big cats just played with the straw, pulling it out
from under the door and rendering it useless as insulation - at least they had
fun with it.
Visitors
often ask me if the tropical or desert animals seem bothered by the cold. I
personally don't think they are. A lot of the animals spend time outside even
when it's cold. The lions seem a bit perturbed though.
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| Duma seems to love the snow |
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| Sweetie's not going to let a little snow disrupt her lunch |
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| The baboons are hilarious in the snow. They don't like it when their hands get wet. |
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| This is a rare sight. The ever elusive snow lion! |
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| Alaska blends right in. |
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| OJ looks so beautiful. The snow really brings out his colour. |
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| Ocean and Papa are right at home. |
