Monarto Safari Park Big cats lick the heat

Simon Hampel

Simon Hampel

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AdelaideNow... Big cats lick the heat

LIONS and cheetahs at Monarto Zoo have been keeping cool with gigantic ice blocks placed around their enclosure.
Faced with scorching temperatures in the high 40s at the zoo this week, including a maximum of 48C on Wednesday, staff tried everything to keep the animals cool.

Monarto Zoo curator Colin Colquhoun was concerned about how the animals would cope. He said that while most of the animals are from habitats with a similar climate to South Australia, this week's heat had been "fairly excessive".

"The main priority of the keepers is to keep the animals as comfortable as possible," he said.

Cat keeper Trena Carney said while they often used water sprays to help the animals stay cool, using blocks of ice was another effective method for some animals.

"Most of the animals just look at them but the lions have a bit of a play and the hyenas rub themselves on them," she said.

Ms Carney and the other keepers placed 10 ice blocks out yesterday, with sizes ranging from 6kg to 13kg.

"We also sometimes put a bit of frozen kangaroo and frozen fish or whitebait . . . anything that smells strongly so that they think there's something in there," she said.

"The animals will then try to break the ice or just wait for it to melt." Mr Colquhoun said the ice blocks were there particularly for the lions, cheetahs, hyenas and the African painted dogs.

Other heat measures include leaving extra water out for the animals and providing more shade.

And it is not just the animals who must endure the heat – the zoo has about 10 keepers working every day.

"A lot of the keepers are starting earlier to avoid the heat," Mr Colquhoun said.
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Is this correct?

Quote
the zoo has about 10 keepers working every day.

I would have thought allot more?
 
not really. considering the majority of monarto's animals are no-fuss hoodstock in an open setting youre pretty much looking at a cattle station'esque, less labour intensive operation than your traditional urban zoo with multiple taxa and highly artificial environments which require more daily maintanance
 
Okay 16 species of mamal and 1 of bird. I am suprised l had assumed allot more species. Have never visited Monarto.

1000 hectare! Thats allot of space per species and its getting bigger!!!

Now l would say thats too many keepers;)

A good point about the hooofstock Glyn. Basically big cows?
 
i dont think the website gives a comprehensive overview of the species range at MZ but in saying that they dont have many birds...malleefowl, ostrich etc. so yeh, not too hard to look after.
 
The whether burns like in africa, though much hotter than they are to here! ;)
 
This is a wild young Koala woh came to someones house looking for a cooler spot. They love water on a hot day.

 
Did you turn the jets on for him?

Down here there are koalas in lots of peoples backyards in the foothills, After 2 days of 40c + i was told that a council had pulled 22 out of peoples pools.
 
wow, looks like adelaide had some problems as well, here the transport failed on us, there was blackouts ( inculding my house yes) and several busfires started destroying a large amount of bushland, unfortunately many native animals died, a few I read had been rescued with terrible injuries.

The koalas over at adelaide at least are finding comfort in some way which is good to hear. :)
 
I have had a couple of heat stroke possums but know of cares who have 40+ its crezay, but cooling down now, i myself lost about 40 plains rats :(
 
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