Hyderabad: Helping zoo animals beat summer heat

Bahadurpura: As the summer season begun, officials of Nehru Zoological Park are gearing up with special arrangements to protect around 181 species including animals, birds and reptiles from heat. The arrangements would be put in place from third week of this month till mid-June. In addition to preparing for the ensuing summer, the zoo authorities will be initiating special measures to care for animals.

Speaking to The Hans India, VVL Subhadra Devi, Curator of the Zoo said, "Apart from installing sprinklers, showers, and rain guns in all animal enclosures, we would be takingspecial care in terms of diet charts for animals.Glucon-D will be mixed in the drinking water served to chimpanzees, monkeys, primates, birds and bears. They will be fed with summer fruits like watermelon, musk melon, and citrus variety fruits.Salt bricks will be served for herbivores. Veterinarians will be monitoring all animals from time to time. Special care is a feature thatnormally starts from mid-May every year, but this summer we started it early." Another major addition this summer is, more than 50 air coolers would be installed in all animal enclosures, exhaust fans, and air conditioners in the animal houses with shady shelters in all the herbivore enclosures. Around 80 per cent of the enclosures including windows, ventilators, and doors will be covered with 'KashkashThattis' and 'thunga grass' and they would be watered three to four times a day. Gunny cloths would also be set up to avoid direct sunlight exposure on the animals. Green shade nets will be placed over the roof of birds' enclosures.All animal keepers and park supervisors will take up preventive steps from time to time to avoid summer heat to animals.