These are special ice creams with water, frozen raspberries and strawberries – or with meat, for bears.
ADVERTISEMENTAnimals at Sofia Zoo cool off with ice cream.
The Brown Bear Treat is a large ice cube containing frozen seasonal fruits and meat.
His keeper hides the ice in a different place each time.
In addition to the game, this device is an attempt to imitate the behavior of animals in their habitat.
Anita Tsvetanova, head of the Animal Feed department, explains:
“This is called environmental enrichment, which involves keeping animals busy. You don’t have to imprison them, but you provide them with methods, ways to move around, to look for food and variety. It’s about imitating their behavior in nature as much as possible.“.
While Indian elephants prefer to take a shower to cool off in the summer, monkeys are also ice-eaters. Animal keeper Yordan Angelov says:
“We make special ice creams with water, raspberries and strawberries that we freeze. They love to play with them, lick them, like humans do.s”.
At Sofia Zoo, the animals have learned to adapt to the seasons. According to Anita Tsvetanova, responsible for animal nutrition: “Primates, large animals, some herbivores tolerate heat. I can say that in general, they are adapted to the climate. They tolerate winter and summer temperatures well..”
She adds : “Being here has an impact on their system and their morphology. It makes them able to withstand heat and cold.“
Sofia Zoo currently houses more than 2,500 animals.
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