Recently, Kunming ushered in a wave of cooling, when the citizens have warm pants, down jackets, how do the animals in Kunming Zoo survive the winter?
PART 01
When it's cold, go into the building to warm up
As early as October, the Kunming Zoo began to plan for the insulation and heating of animals. For giraffes, Asian elephants and other animals from tropical and subtropical regions, the park has prepared heating equipment, and their buildings have heating and oil, and the building has become a "big greenhouse" for them to play.
Walking into the building, the temperature and humidity are suitable, and the natural living Xi of these animals and the living conditions in the middle and subtropical regions are modeled. At the same time, the keepers pay attention to the changes in the temperature inside and outside the building every day, heat the animals according to the thermometer instructions, and reasonably adjust the room temperature according to the different Xi of the animals.
Primates, such as gibbons, red monkeys, squirrel monkeys and other animals, are active on the ground for a long time, so the zoo has thoughtfully installed a thermostatic fan in the building, and when the temperature is lower than 10°C, the staff will activate the fan. When the temperature of the building is low, it will automatically heat up, and when it is higher than the set temperature, it will automatically cool down to keep the temperature in the building at about 20°C.
For some animals with special temperature requirements, the staff will adjust the release time of the animal. When the outside temperature is too low, the animals are allowed to take shelter indoors, and when the sun is abundant and the temperature is suitable, the staff will let them go outside to enjoy the sun and exercise.
PART 02
Hungry for nutritious and healthy food
In winter, in addition to living in a warm building, the animals' food is also "nutrition + health". For herbivores such as white rhinoceros and Asian elephants, the staff prepared daily "dry food" such as sugarcane and alfalfa grass in advance, and at the same time, increased the ratio of fruits, vegetables and concentrate feed, and added trace elements and nutrients to make them full and well-fed.
The relevant person in charge of the animal management department of Kunming Zoo said that since November, animals that are "afraid of cold" have begun to allocate food. The staple food of Asian elephants has been replaced by sugarcane, which has a relatively high sugar content, which can quickly provide Asian elephants with calories, improve their fat shape, and let them better survive the winter;
Every year in autumn, when the temperature begins to drop gradually, the animal nutritionists of Kunming Zoo begin to adjust the diet of various animals, through scientific collocation, to ensure that the proportion of animal diet is reasonable, nutritious and healthy, so as to ensure that when the cold winter comes, the animals have enough fat to resist the cold.
Source | Kunming Zoo Kunming Garden WeChat public account