Feeding ice cubes, soaking in a cool bath, taking supportive medicine, many ways to relieve summer heat for animals

Teng Mingsheng, Senior Zookeeper and Animal Technology Director of Chongqing Zoo, said that the zoo currently used three methods, namely physical cooling, medicinal prevention and adjustment of feed structure, to lower the animals’ body temperature.

Physical cooling mainly refers to adding air-conditioning, air-cooling and other facilities, fur thinning for furry and mild-tempered animals, and water storage in the pool to allow animals to bathe, swim, etc. to prevent heatstroke. Drug prevention is achieved by mixing the supportive medicine into the water and food of animals and using the medicine to achieve the effect of heatstroke prevention and cooling.

Naughty gorillas eating summer food while playing.

Another important way for the Chongqing Zoo to cool animals is to adjust the food structure. The staff have made appropriate adjustments to animal's diet structure, increasing the proportion of vegetables and fruits, especially watermelons, grapes and other water-rich foods. Fruits, fish, etc. are frozen and then fed to animals. However, Teng Mingsheng said that the frozen food should not exceed 20% of the animal's daily diet. This is to prevent the animal from getting a gastrointestinal cold that might be resulted from extremely cold food. (Translated by Yang Lifu, Fathom Language Limited)