In this week’s heat and humidity, you might wonder how the animals at the Potawatomi Zoo are faring. We checked in with zoo director Josh Sisk.
Since many of them come from African climates much warmer than Michiana, Sisk says he often jokes that the health of staff who are working to keep the animals cool might be a bigger concern. They’re getting plenty of Gatorade breaks. As for the animals…
“We’ve got pools for them," Sisk said. "Everyone’s got misters right now, so even the ostrich, or swimming in their pools. We’ll do ice treats and freeze big blocks of ice for them to roll around on. We call them bloodcicles, where we’ll take blood from the meat for the big cats and we’ll put it in water and we’ll make these big ice cubes and so the animals have those to lick and stuff. They really like that. The red pandas have air-conditioned boxes that they can go into, so it’s depending on the species, it’s a little different for everyone.”
Sisk says some animals do retreat to cooler areas that visitors don’t see, but others entertain visitors more as they cool off.
“So like yesterday the bison was right in the public area. We had a garden hose over the fence, spraying out, and he was just standing under it, just soaking wet, just taking it in as much as he could.”
