{"id":543836,"date":"2026-07-11T03:59:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/543836\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T03:59:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T03:59:25","slug":"majority-of-animals-in-corks-fota-wildlife-park-pretty-keen-on-the-good-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/543836\/","title":{"rendered":"Majority of animals in Cork’s Fota Wildlife Park \u2018pretty keen on the good weather\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

As temperatures exceeded 20C around Cork this week,\u00a0Fota Wildlife Park<\/a> staff were keeping animals cool and hydrated with frozen treats and cold showers.<\/p>\n

Met \u00c9ireann<\/a> said \u201cheatwave conditions\u201d will remain in place for the remainder of this week and into next week in Cork, as a weather advisory for the whole country came into effect on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Liam McConville, senior ranger at Fota Wildlife Park, told The Echo: \u201cMost of the animals are pretty keen on the good weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe meerkats and lemurs are the sun worshippers \u2013 if they were humans on their holidays, they\u2019d be the ones rushing down with their towels to get the best sunbeds,\u201d says Fota ranger Liam McConville.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere\u2019s a misconception that all penguins are from cold climates \u2013 our penguins are found on the coast of Chile so they do absolutely fantastic in this weather.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

He said the red pandas are among the animals less suited to the heatwave, but their enclosure has lots of tree coverage and houses that are well ventilated, with fans put in place to ensure they have a cool place to rest.<\/p>\n

Artificial shelters<\/p>\n

\u201cAll animals have an enclosure that\u2019s specific to their needs all year round \u2013 areas of shade like artificial shelters as well as trees and rocks. That they have freedom to get shade if they want to is really important,\u201d said Mr McConville.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have lots of bodies of water, and they\u2019re fed from the harbour so the water is naturally recycled and it stays cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Park staff have lots of methods of manually keeping animals cool \u2013 Jamil the rhino was hosed down by a ranger \u201cto take the edge off\u201d, while others enjoy a sprinkler system.<\/p>\n

\"SpiderSpider monkeys enjoy homemade, sugar-free ice lollies, made from their favourite fruits, as zookeepers help keep the animals cool during the current heatwave at Fota Wildlife Park<\/p>\n

Blocks of sugar free cordial and grapes are thrown into the enclosure of the spider monkeys.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cGiving them iced treats, freezing their food into blocks of ice also gives them extra water without them even realising they\u2019re keeping themselves cool and hydrated.”\n <\/p>\n

Green beans and lettuce are frozen into a large ice block for giraffes, which will take all day to fully defrost as they lick the block to free the vegetables.<\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam McConville, senior ranger at Fota Wildlife Park, feeds the giraffes frozen cubes of their favourite treats to help keep them cool during the current heatwave Pictures: Chani Anderson<\/p>\n

Their tongues range from eight to 13 inches and are black to prevent them from getting sunburnt as they eat from trees on hot days.<\/p>\n

Fota welcomed a baby giraffe three weeks ago, and the adult giraffes stand around her to ensure she is kept in the shade as much as possible.<\/p>\n

The Nubian giraffe is critically endangered, and the calf was welcomed as a result of one of Fota\u2019s many breeding programmes.<\/p>\n

Mr McConville said that seeing an increase in extreme temperatures is a cause for concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is worrying. We\u2019re seeing things like loss of habitat, melting ice caps \u2013 it\u2019s not good for animals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As temperatures exceeded 20C around Cork this week,\u00a0Fota Wildlife Park staff were keeping animals cool and hydrated with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[79,43164,93,51382,61,60],"class_list":["post-543836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cork-news","tag-east-cork","tag-entertainment","tag-fota-wildlife-park","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}