Amid the heatwave, Prague Zoo uses tons of ice to cool animals

DW (English)

Amid the deadly heatwave gripping Europe, Prague Zoo is keeping its animals cool with tons of ice every day. As the temperatures soar above 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit), officials at the Prague Zoo say heaps of ice help animals, particularly polar bears, feel at home.

Transcript

00:00Aleut and Gregor, two polar bear twin brothers at Prague Zoo in the Czech Republic,

00:07roll in tons of ice to keep themselves cool on scorching summer days.

00:13Zookeepers in Prague came up with the idea as the heat wave sweeps across Europe,

00:18affecting everyone, including animals.

00:21In the first week of July this year, Prague's usually mild summer temperatures soared to 37 degrees Celsius.

00:29That is when Prague Zoo came up with the idea of bringing tons of ice to keep Arctic animals cool.

00:39From last year we have this project which is called Ice Zoo.

00:43And we sometimes, during the days when it's over 30 degrees here in Prague,

00:49put really huge amount of ice into their enclosure.

00:53And when I'm talking about huge amount, it's usually around 3,000 kilograms of ice just for polar bears.

01:00And it's great enrichment for them. It's something new in their enclosure to explore.

01:05So they have water whenever they want to use it. They can swell all the year around.

01:11They have their own ice maker, which makes ice all day long.

01:16Prague Zoo was established in 1931. It has 7,000 animals from 700 species.

01:23On average, 1.4 million people visit Prague Zoo every year.

01:30Filip Maszek, spokesperson at Prague Zoo, says keeping hundreds of animals and visitors cool on scorching days is not easy.

01:40It takes a good weather forecast and a huge workforce to deliver tons of ice every day.

01:47So usually we order 10 tons of ice for one day. Almost half of it goes to the polar bears.

01:54But we also give it to other animals and not just from the Arctic areas.

01:58But we usually tend to choose animals that know snow from their natural habitat.

02:03So we chose the European and American Byzans. We chose the North American authors.

02:08But we have to know it like 2-3 days before because we have to order this huge amount of ice.

02:14Someone has to freeze it, someone has to bring it here and then we have to distribute it.

02:18And that's a job for, you know, 30 people at least.

02:21Despite Prague Zoo's measures to keep animals cool with ice,

02:25many visitors say they are concerned about species from colder regions coping with Europe's scorching heat waves.

02:32I think it must be very difficult for them because they are not accustomed for this kind of weather.

02:39It's about 30 degrees right now. So I was just wondering how they actually cope with this heat.

02:48Amid the sweltering heat wave, people often ask whether keeping Arctic species in zoos is ethical.

02:55But Filip Maszek says having these animals in the Prague Zoo is important to keep them from going extinct.

03:02There is this long tradition of keeping the bears. There is a lot of knowledge also here.

03:08And we really, really need to breed the species because sadly in 2-3 generations the species really can go extinct.

03:15So there is this higher purpose sort of and we are making everything for these animals to feel comfortable.

03:21Filip, Anita and the Prague Zoo visitors hope that the weather across Europe improves and makes it easier,

03:29not just for them, but also for the animals, especially for polar bears.

03:34For now, a lieutenant Gregor can roll and lounge around in tons of eyes as visitors catch a rare glimpse of the vulnerable species.

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