Mixed response from animals to arctic conditions

WITH the country grinding to a halt in arctic weather conditions, the nation’s more exotic creatures seem to be taking it all in their stride.

In Dublin Zoo, covered in a blanket of snow for the past few days, some of the animals are even revelling in their “new” surroundings.

Ciarán McMahon, team leader of the west area of Dublin Zoo, said some of the animals were choosing to come out and enjoy the wintry weather while others were happy to remain inside in their heated homes.

“So far we are doing well, we have a contingency plan in place even though the weather is worse than we expected. All the primates and large apes are inside in their houses which are heated to 26 degrees so they are nice and cosy. That’s the beauty of the modern zoo. You can create a habitat inside for the animals. Some of the other animals are loving the snow. For example the Sumatran tigers, snow leopard, the penguins, our arctic foxes and the snowy owls. They are all enjoying the weather,” he said.

The zoo keeper said that some of the newer animals were fascinated by their white surroundings, having never seen snow before.

“Feeding these animals in the snow is amazing and it’s amazing for us as keepers to see their reaction to it. Some of the younger animals are fascinated by it. They would have never seen snow before so you can see them testing it under their feet wondering ‘What’s this?’”

Director of Cork’s Fota Wildlife Park, Seán McKeown, said the even though the animals had been spared the snow of their Dublin counterparts, they were being given extra food to keep their energy up.

The penguins “are Humboldt penguins from down near Chile so they are fine in this weather too. Our monkeys don’t like the cold too much but they can stay inside in their houses and they adjust quite well. Our giraffes also don’t like it. We don’t put them out in frosty weather and even if we did they would just want to come back in again,” he explained.