Ice cubes of all kinds and ice cream made from hoses: the Zoo activates its plan to combat the heat for animals.

Barcelona"Hydration, feeding, and ventilation are the main aspects we adapt during hot periods to ensure the animals' well-being," explains Antoni Alarcón, director of the Barcelona Zoo. It's 11:30 in the afternoon and the temperature is 31 degrees. These measures include providing more drinking fountains and changing the water more frequently, intensifying cleaning and changing the water in bathing areas and mud pits for some species—such as warthogs and elephants—and improving the ventilation of the enclosures. This diet is a complement to improve the animals' hydration and does not replace anything they normally eat. Pieces of fruit found among the ice: "The fact that they have to lick them little by little helps them hydrate," explains Alarcón.

The Zoo aims to ensure the animals' conditions are as close to their natural environment as possible, so the giraffes' ice creams are somewhat different. In their case, they hang blocks of ice—without any covering, as they do with the chimpanzees'—from an elevated area within the enclosure. The blocks contain pieces of fruit and tubers, which they access slowly as they lick the ice. Although it's almost 11:30 and the sun increases the sensation of heat, only one of the giraffes is interested in the ice cream that the enclosure managers have hung. Some of the others sniff it, but eventually return to the shade with the rest.

Although this protocol was reactivated in August after the drop in temperatures during the last weeks of July, Alarcón explains that it was already operational with the June heat wave. "The protocol varies depending on the specific environmental needs of each species, as well as their behavior," comments the Zoo director. In this sense, he points out that This year's protocol does not incorporate any changes compared to the previous one., and the only variation is the duration depending on the heat waves, which are becoming more frequent.

Some species, such as bison and buffalo, are also soaked using hoses and sprinklers, and others have had various mechanisms installed in their dormitories to facilitate air renewal. All these measures contribute to the air conditioning of a facility that, thanks to its location surrounded by vegetation, largely plane trees, enjoys temperatures about three degrees lower than the rest of Barcelona.