Zookeepers Work To Save Animals During UK Heat Wave At Dudley Zoo

By Jill Hitchman 

West Midlands, UK - Rare species at Dudley Zoological Gardens, in the West Midlands, UK are keeping their cool in the heatwave, despite soaring temperatures.

Staff are following a daily routine of applying sun cream to the kune-kune pigs, hosing alpacas and tapirs with cold water, and providing a supply of iced fruit lollies for a family of Rothschilds giraffes plus 30 small primates in Lemur Wood.

DZG Chief Executive, Peter Suddock, said: ³Many of the endangered animals within our collection love the hot weather, and all enclosures have shaded areas, but we have to make sure they don¹t get dehydrated or suffer sunburn.

The kune-kunes¹ skin burns easily so it is vital that they are covered with a high factor sun treatment each day and the iced lollies are an easy and healthy way to encourage the lemurs and giraffes to take more fluids.

The lemurs' lollies contain a mixture of banana and carrot iin frozen water.

He added: ³We are also lucky in that we have a ready supply of water, drawn from the caves beneath the 11th century castle, which is at a constant 10 to 12 degrees C, and thus ideal for keeping the Patagonian sealions and our 70-strong colony of rare Humboldt¹s penguins cool during the hot spell.

Photo captions: How cool is that! Dudley Zoo keeper Stacey Ball applies sun oil to the kune-kune pigs.

Dudley Zoo keeper Mark Dugmore lends a hand with the lollies in Lemur Wood.

To view Dudley Zoo's web page on Zoo and Aquarium Visitor, go to: http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-2354-Dudley_Zoological_Gardens,_West_Midlands,_England