Just when you thought that it cannot get any hotter, along comes a day with the mercury sizzling. At the city zoo, too the animals are in the grip of a relentless March mid-day sun.
Proportionate to the rising temperature, the metabolism of the animals goes down. This manifests itself as a tell-tale loss of appetite. Among those hit the hardest are the large ruminants, the big cats, and the deer. Already these animals are showing signs that the heat is getting at them; they have turned sluggish.
The first line of defence against the summer heat is a summer shower. Come the hot days and out come the water hoses with which the animal keepers spray water into the enclosures in a bid to keep the inhabitants cool. For the tigers, and lions, this amounts to no small relief.
If added showers are the norm for the cats, it is a vitamin-rich diet for the deer who also feel the heat to a fault.
So they are given Vitamin B and multivitamin supplements to see them through the summer.
However, it is the Himalayan Black Bear who gets a royal treatment in summer.
Animal keepers take the juiciest of pineapples and water melons and freeze them embedded in a body of water. This is then fed to the bear. “It is delightful to see the bear hug the block of ice and try to get at the fruit inside. This is as close we can get to their natural habitat,” a zoo official said.
