How our animals stay cool in hot weather

With the recent hot weather and more forecast, we often get asked how we help keep our animals cool.

There's no real art to keeping our birds and otter family cool; many techniques are down to their own adaptations. But there are definitely some ways we can help to make sure they are comfortable when this unusually hot weather hits.

Our Asian short-clawed otter family

Mimi, Musa and Buster are firm favourites with visitors, and while they have their own ways to keep cool such as finding shade, cooling down in the ponds and generally moving far less than they normally would. Much like us humans eating ice lollies or ice cream, our keepers offer our otters iced water in bowls and also hang things like frozen fish and fishy ice cubes (yum). These hanging goodies provide further enrichment while they slowly defrost throughout the day helping to keep them cool as often as they like.

Otters have adapted an air pocket with two layers of fur which helps prevent warm air coming through to their skin during hotter weather, as well as retaining body heat during the winter months.

Our duckery birds

Young birds need a little bit of support. Our team ensure the young ducklings and goslings have access to more shade while they're outside and that the water is fresh and topped up throughout the day. For younger birds inside our duckery, we closely monitor the temperature of the inside units and again regularly check and top up their water.

Our ducks, geese and swans

Most birds are self-caring and during hot weather will find shady spots to lie and keep cool. Some birds will take to the water for a dip or a splash which helps to keep their body temperature at a comfortable level, while others will avoid direct sunlight, laying low to the ground and spread out their wings encouraging wind to flow underneath. We always make sure there are plenty of shady spots under trees and bushes so they can find a place to chill!

In technical terms...

• Birds lose a lot of their heat through their beaks, feet and legs as these are the only areas exposed. There are arteries that carry warm blood from the heart, running alongside the veins carrying cold blood from the legs. This allows them to consistently maintain their body temperature. In hot weather, the flow of warm blood to the legs and beaks increases so the bird can lose unwanted heat and keep cool. This is why we feel their legs if we think they might be overheating when in hand!
• Birds have two layers of feathers - soft fluffy down on the surface of the skin covered by hard, vaned feathers on top. Neither has a bloody supply. Because they don’t have a blood supply, they don’t need to stay warm and as such are naturally cooler than the main body. The two layers of feathers create an air gap between. Heat doesn't transfer easily through air and repels direct heat from the sun outside. On the flip side, it's this air gap that helps birds to stay warm, holding on to its heat in the winter.

Our flamingos

They LOVE heat! As with other birds, they can regulate their heat and have the air gap, but these are naturally more adapted to hot weather and are better at it generally. With such long legs the blood naturally loses more heat from the body more easily too.

By tucking a foot underneath their body and standing on one leg they are able to stay cooler in hot weather, as well as warm in cold weather. You may also see that they often sit down on very hot days, hiding both feet. They can lock their muscles in place when resting on one foot- meaning they are using no energy and therefore creating no heat.

Waterflow

Our team spend lots of time checking waterways and making sure that water is flowing around our site efficiently - faster flowing water spends less time exposed to direct sunlight while passing through shady spots at regular intervals helping to keep it much cooler.

Where water isn't running, for example at the otter exhibit, we keep the water levels as high as possible and refresh it regularly to help keep it cool.

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