CHENNAI: The Arignar Anna Zoological Park, popularly known as Vandalur zoo, is planning to pamper its animals with summer goodies to beat the heat. A unique summer management plan for all mammals, birds, and reptiles has been chalked out.
Mega herbivores like rhinoceros, elephant, hippopotamus, giraffe, and zebra have been provided with showers with sprinklers. Elephants are allowed to wallow in the pond twice a day. Sheds with thatched roof had been provided in all the enclosures well in advance of summer. Special diets would be given to primates, bears, and elephants.
Gunny bags have been tied on the top and sides of most bird enclosures and are sprayed with water in the noon. Sprinklers have been arranged in the enclosures of ostriches, terrestrial birds, and at the walk-through aviary. Carnivores have been provided with frozen meat while primates and bears are given fruits made cold with ice, officials said.
Serpentarium (enclosure for snakes) has been given mud mounds and pots in multiple tiers to ensure differential temperature inside it, the release added. (Snakes require variable temperatures for digestion, molting and reproduction.)