 Cooling Off with Frozen Fruit
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Aug. 5, 2003 — From sunscreen to ice lollipops containing blood, British zoos Monday were using their imagination in a bid to protect their animals from sizzling summer weather, as heat levels soared towards what could be a record.
At London Zoo, ice lollipops, which prevent animals from becoming dehydrated, were the favorite dish of the day.
Penguins were fed fish lollipops, tigers and lions devoured lollipops filled with one of their favorite herbs, rosemary, while bears and monkeys were given fruit lollipops containing pieces of apples, pears and oranges.
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At Colchester Zoo in eastern England, tigers were supplied with blood ice lollipops extracted from horse and cow meat.
Raccoons at Newquay Zoo in southwest England lapped up frozen yogurt, and buckets of fruit and nuts frozen in ice were tied to the roof of the monkey enclosure, while pigs were covered in suntan lotion.
"It takes most of the day for the monkeys to lick all the ice and get all the nuts out," curator and veterinary manager Wendy Winstanley said.
London was the hottest place in Britain Monday, sweltering under 32°C (90°F) heat, with forecasters predicting that the highest temperature ever recorded in Britain, 37.1°C (98.8°F), could be exceeded on Wednesday.
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