Greek zoo serves up frozen meals to animals to assist them beat the warmth

Greek zoo serves up frozen meals to animals to assist them beat the warmth

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Derek Gatopoulos, The Affiliated Press &#13
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Printed Friday, August 4, 2023 6:59AM EDT&#13
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SPATA, Greece (AP) — At first sight, Tiembe experiments his frozen breakfast with hesitation: Chunks of crimson meat and bone packed in a foot-long block of ice.

The 15-12 months-previous Angolan lion sooner or later licks the ice just before gnawing items of meat totally free.

Animals at the Attica Zoological Park outside the Greek cash were being fed frozen meals Friday as temperatures close to the place arrived at 40 C (107.5 F) and were established to increase additional, in the fourth warmth wave in fewer than a month.

The extreme temperatures and wildfires — a increasing issue for biodiversity in southern Europe — have experienced an influence on Greek wildlife.

A fireplace on the island of Rhodes burned for 11 successive days, triggering the evacuation of 20,000 people, mostly tourists.

The island’s animals have been much less fortuitous.

As the hearth tore by mountain forests and a character reserve, an believed 2,500 animals and beehives have been burned, together with 50,000 olive trees, according to Agriculture Ministry officials. Fallow deer, a image of Rhodes, had been uncovered lying useless on the roadside.

The zoo, which is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) east of Athens, is looking following an hurt deer and quite a few turtles — some fitted with wheels prized from toys to aid with their mobility — which experienced burns and other accidents all through the Rhodes fireplace.

Zoo curator Antonis Balas urged pet house owners to be additional mindful of their animals at situations of serious warmth, noting that a lot of of the preferred breeds of pets are from indigenous cooler climates in Northern and Central Europe.

“In common, heat affects animals in the same way that it affects individuals,” Balas explained, after feeding fruit popsicles to ring-tailed lemurs, some clambering onto his shoulders to get served 1st.

“The iced treats are a complement to their foods … they lick the ice and breathe in the amazing air. That’s in distinction to men and women who sweat as a way of controling their system temperature.

Ten key wildfires struck Greece in July, and bundled major blazes exterior Athens. More than 450 pet puppies and cats ended up rescued from fires, many remaining in their residences as the entrepreneurs fled, in accordance to a charity that is effective with a point out animal agency. About half have been reunited with their house owners, the other folks placed in short-term adoption.

In the wake of the Greek fires, the international animal charity PETA urged animal entrepreneurs not to abandon their pets.

Elisa Allen, the group’s vice president for applications, claimed the fires also served as a reminder that the animal farming market is a main world-wide contributor to weather alter.

“Where there’s smoke, there is hearth and in this circumstance, no just one should overlook how animal agriculture’s greenhouse gasoline emissions gasoline the weather disaster and build the ailments that enable wildfires unfold,” Allen explained to The Associated Push.

Temperatures are envisioned to arrive at 42 C (107.6 F) in pieces of central Greece on Saturday ahead of easing early up coming week.