TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—In sweltering summer heat, not only humans like to eat various ice products, animals are also hungry for them. That’s why Taipei Zoo has turned itself into an ice plant to help its animal residents beat the summer heat.
Taipei Zoo spokesperson Eric Tsao (曹先紹) said that outdoor animals have obviously poorer appetite under scorching summer heat, and therefore the zoo has turned its kitchen into an ice making factory. Every Wednesday afternoon, the special ice plant yields 33 buckets and 112 cups of fruit ice, two buckets of blood ice, one bucket of ground meat ice, and two buckets of willow leaf fish ice.
Tsao said black bears, brown bears, chimpanzees, east Africa baboons, Taiwan macaques, orangutans, sun bears, crab-eating macaques, white-handed gibbons, gorillas, and African elephants are all fruit ice lovers. Spotted hyenas and African lions are fond of blood ice and ground meat ice, while common otters like willow leaf fish ice, he added.
When the ice products are offered, gorillas will hold the big ice and run to their secret hideouts to enjoy; chimpanzees will circle the ice and share it with each other; black bears will slowly savor the ice; common otters will circle around the floating ice, frolic with it and only eat it when the willow leaf fish break away from the ice, according to the zoo.
Taiwan macaques have a caste system among them, and won’t gather to share a bucket of fruit ice; therefore, zookeepers make special fruit ice cups for the monkeys to relish, the zoo said.