Tuesday, December 11, 2012

First Big Freeze!

We've had our first big freeze of the season, with night time lows in the twenties and most of the past few days under 50 degrees. Brrr is an understatement! It's hard to believe that it can be 20 degrees AND 80 degrees in the same week.

The animals don't mind the cold nearly as much as we do. Well, most of them don't. While the tigers have been up and about, feeling even more frisky than usual, Mork and Mindy, whose species is native the more equatorial regions, have been spending lots of time in their heated cave, cuddling together in blankets and hay. The IEAS lions have been taking advantage of the sun, laying in the warmest spots, sunning themselves and absorbing lots of heat!

The cold does tend to make Sanctuary work more difficult, but we'd been keeping an eye on the cold front, and we were very prepared for what the drop in temperature meant. Frozen hoses and frozen waters were two of the biggest "bumps in the road" that we faced this morning, but after breaking waters and allowing the sun the do some thawing work for us, we were able to give every resident animal fresh water!

Needless to say, the freeze is a great learning experience for our new interns. When working in the animal care field, you have to realize that no matter the weather, the animals have needs every single day, and here at IEAS, their needs and their safety are always number one priorities! The new interns have seen that today, as we bundled up and ventured out to take care of these amazing animals! 

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