CONTACT: Rod Hackney
FOR RELEASE: August 10, 2000 Telephone: 336-879-7204
Zoo's Polar Bears Beat The Heat With Romp In The Ice
ASHEBORO—What better way to beat the dog days of summer than frolicking around on a two-thousand-pound mound
of crushed ice?
That’s the solution to be offered to the polar bears at the North Carolina Zoo for the next three days as zoo keepers will
unload a truckload of ice into the bears’ exhibit at 1:30 p.m. each day. It’s all part of the zoo’s ongoing “behavioral
enrichment” program to provide both mental and physical stimulation for the park’s animal collection.
Beginning Friday and continuing on Saturday and Sunday, the zoo’s two polar bears will briefly be taken off exhibit at 1:30
p.m. while keepers unload more than a ton of bagged ice from an area ice dealer. In addition to the mound of ice, keepers
also will provide giant treats made of fruits and vegetables frozen inside five-gallon plastic water buckets as a way of helping
the bears cope with the recent heat wave.
Once the ice and treats are in place, the bears will be released back into their exhibit to scratch, sniff, roll, chew and grovel in the frosty landscape. The zoo staff expects the frigid play items to provide a couple hours of polar bear “icecapades” before it all melts away.
“We are constantly looking for ways to provide more activities and sensory stimulation for all our animals,” said Ron
Morris, the zoo’s general curator. “This time of year, a romp in the ice just seems an appropriate activity for a species so often
associated with frigid climates.”
The zoo is an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Bill Holman, Secretary.
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NOTE TO REPORTERS AND EDITORS: A special invitation is extended to media representatives to attend the first day of the polar bear ice romp. Please contact Rod Hackney (336-879-7204) or Tom Gillespie (336-879-7202) in the Zoo’s Marketing Office if you can make it.
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