Animals at the Rio de Janeiro Zoo Receive Ice Cream on a Record-Breaking Hot Day

Rio de Janeiro’s zoo distributed ice pops made with ground beef, blood, and fruit to several animals at the BioPark on Tuesday to help them cope with the record-breaking heat that has gripped the Brazilian city for the third consecutive day.  Jaguars, spectacled bears, otters, wolves, and monkeys were among the animals that enjoyed the treat, an activity organized annually by the zoo during the summer and witnessed by the press and visitors.  The ice pops were given to both big cats and primates, who make up the vast majority of the animals at the BioPark, a 50,000-square-meter zoo located in Quinta da Boa Vista, a historic park in Rio de Janeiro. 

While the large carnivorous mammals enjoyed ice creams made with ground meat or blood—the former for the jaguars and the latter for the maned wolf (a species of wolf typical of the Brazilian savanna)—the spectacled bear devoured a melon-flavored ice cream, which it enjoyed while lounging in its pool, while the monkeys received ice creams made with fruit.  “This is an environmental well-being activity aimed at providing thermal cooling for the animals during these hotter days,” Leticia Feitosa, a biologist specializing in animal welfare at Rio BioPark, told the media.  The specialist explained that climate change has become a cause for concern, threatening some species and forcing zoos to adapt to meet the animals’ needs. 

“In our enclosures, we offer them shaded areas and others where they can bask in the sun so they have a choice, as well as pools for the species that enjoy them,” she said.  The event, open to the public, coincided with a record-breaking heat wave in Rio de Janeiro, with temperatures reaching 41 degrees Celsius on Monday and Tuesday—the highest of the current Southern Hemisphere summer.  Authorities declared a Level 3 heat alert on Monday, triggered by temperatures between 36 and 40 degrees Celsius for three consecutive days with a forecast of further increases.  The city was also the first capital in Brazil to experience temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius this year, and the state of Rio de Janeiro accounted for nine of the ten hottest locations in Brazil on Monday.