At Terra Natura Benidorm, we have activated a special protocol to guarantee the welfare of the animals as temperatures keep rising with the current heat wave in our area. These measures apply especially to the species most sensitive to high temperatures.

Among the actions taken, the change of diet of the different species stands out, providing them frozen food, special fruit, vegetables, meat and even macaroni popsicles. Thanks to this type of food, the animals are able to cool down and, on the other hand, their environmental enrichment is enhanced by trying new textures and sensations. We need to know that animals lose their appetite in the heat, and this measure guarantees their nutrition.

Animals such as Asiatic lions, Bengal tigers and jaguars will receive part of their diet frozen during these hot days to help regulate their temperature, specifically chicken ice cream. Elephants and rhinoceroses will enjoy fruit and vegetable ice cream such as watermelon, apple, cucumber and pepper.

The saimiri, cotton-top tamarins and other marmosets, capuchin monkeys and peccaries will also have their ice creams these days with peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, fruit puree or bananas. Part of these ice creams will be made by the children of the Terra Natura Benidorm summer school, another way of involving them in the conservation of biodiversity and the species that live in the park.

Charly, the new sloth, will also have special ice creams

The family of sloths at Terra Natura Benidorm has recently increased with the arrival of Charly, a female from Herberstein Zoo in Austria. She is a year and a half old and has spent a few months adapting to life in the park with the male.

With the arrival of this heat wave, the sloths will also receive their special ice creams. It will be the first time that Charly will be fed in this way with frozen fruit, carrots and courgettes that will refresh and nourish them with a variety of flavours, such as the exotic papaya.

In addition, other measures have been implemented to lower the temperature as much as possible and to guarantee the well-being of all the animals, such as increasing the number of watering cycles and water sprays in the meadow and animal facilities, both in outdoor and indoor areas, and the use of sprinklers in certain areas.