Zookeeper V Egambaram proffers a plastic bottle filled with buttermilk to Gauri and Kombi, the zoo’s resident chimpanzee couple. Kombi, the male, sips thirstily, looking uncannily like a particularly hairy version of an actor in a soft drink commercial. Gowri, on the other hand, is in a petulant mood. She snarls and swats away the bottle. “This weather is too much for her,” explains the zookeeper.
Chennai: 21/05/2017, For City: Water Pouring on the Elephant calf to cool on a Summer Day at Vandalur Zoo. Photo: M. Karunakaran
As Chennai encounters yet another scorching summer, officials at the Arignar Anna Zoological Park, Vandalur, are gearing up for it with a special programme to beat the soaring mercury levels. The programme includes plenty of showers, the construction of temporary shelters and the supplementation of the regular diet with cooling foods such as watermelon, cucumber and coconut water. It is especially necessary, as the 602-hectare campus, that was ravaged by Cyclone Vardah last year, has lost much of the tree cover which helped mitigate the oppressive heat.
Chennai: 21/05/2017, For City: Summer Day at Vandalur Zoo. Photo: M. Karunakaran
In sleep mode
Withered skeletons of these trees line dust-peppered roads that lead into the various ranges filled with animals. A daub of blue suddenly appears in the taupe-shaded landscape, as a kingfisher alights on a dying branch. But the three white tigers sprawled under a thatched canopy in their enclosure barely look up. Nor do Anitha, Preetha, Suneetha and Sangeetha, the four white tigers named by the late Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa in 2015. They continue to wallow in large troughs of water, offering a gentle yawn from time to time.
The giraffes, barely discernible against the bleak brown backdrop are fairly subdued too. Rehman, the male, relaxes against a tall tree, while his mate Ayesha has settled down under a thatched shelter, enjoying the occasional spritz of water from a newly-installed water sprinkler system nearby.
Chennai: 21/05/2017, For City: Water Pouring on the Geerafee to cool on a Summer Day at Vandalur Zoo. Photo: M. Karunakaran
Little Prakriti, a baby elephant, on the other hand, is in a playful mood despite the heat. She peers from behind her bamboo-slatted shelter and tugs at my dupatta, asking to be let loose. Once she is out, she ambles over to her keeper and waits for him to hose her down, before shaking herself dry (spattering us thoroughly) and offering me a wet, sloppy kiss with her sodden trunk.
Watering away the heat
The amount of water that the zoo uses on a regular basis has gone up considerably, says a Field Range Officer (FRO) who does not want to be named. “We use at least 4.5 lakh litres of water every day,” he says, which includes the water supplied to the animal-shaped water fountains that are found all over the zoo.
Summer has hit the mammal and bird populations of the zoo especially hard. The cold-blooded reptiles like the crocodiles and alligators, on the other hand, seem to have it a little easier. As they cannot regulate their body temperatures, they modify their behaviour, choosing to aestivate (the summer equivalent of hibernation) near cool bodies of water. “We wet the sand in the snake pit every morning to create a cooling effect as well,” says the FRO.
Chennai: 21/05/2017, For City: Water Pouring on the White Tiger to cool on a Summer Day at Vandalur Zoo. Photo: M. Karunakaran
Of creatures warm and cold
While birds, like mammals, are warm-blooded, they do not possess sweat glands to regulate body temperature. The fact that their natural body temperature (average 105 °F) is already higher than that of mammals (average 98.6 °F), makes them particularly vulnerable to the heat. Gunny sacks line the aviary and are wetted at regular intervals to keep the interiors cooler, almost like a khus mat. And yes, the birds get regular showers too.
As do the chimpanzees, of course. Though there is a tap provided in their enclosure that they use to grab a quick drink or wash their heads, nothing beats a cool spray of water. Gauri’s mood visibly lightens as Egambaram brings out a long, green hose and directs it at the chimps. “She loves having a bath,” he says, as we watch her stretch languidly under the spray, à la Liril Girl mode. Kombi is less delicate; swaying drunkenly in the water, he licks it off his hands and breaks into a jig.
