Heatwave affecting visitors rather than animals, says Fota Wildlife Park

Animals at Cork’s Fota Wildlife Park were yesterday sucking on ice blocks containing meat or fruit and rolling in mud to keep cool during the extreme hot weather

However, the park director said the mini-heatwave was impacting more on visitors than the animal population.

Sean McKeown said the animals were adapting well to the rise in heat, with temperatures in Cork reaching the high 20s on Monday.

In the current spell of hot weather, the rhinos were choosing to wallow in mud.

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“The rhinos have a wood wallow they go into which is a mud bath basically. It has got water and mud in it. They go in and they move around. It also coats their skin with a film of mud which is good to have because it is like a sun block almost. It is good for keeping away insects too. In the wild, that is what they would normally do so they are doing that,” he said.

[ Dublin Airport records new high of 28.9 degrees as Ireland faces hottest day this year ]

Cheetahs are used to temperatures like this because in Africa it would be much hotter, he said. He said the big thing was making sure all the animals had water and shade.

“We would give ice blocks to some animals with water and fruit in it. Some of the monkeys would have that. Some of the tigers would get ice blocks with meat or fish in it. By licking that, that keeps them cool as well.”

Mr McKeown said animals, many of whom originally hail from warm climates, are not struggling with the weather.

Instead, it is the Irish public who are having issues during the heatwave. He is calling on parents to be vigilant about the safety of their children and make sure they have sun block and water as they tour the site.

The park, which opened in 1983, attracts more than 455,000 visitors annually. It contains 106 species.