Maja Hampson's Zoo Keeping Adventures

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.