MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas — Central Texas is expecting extreme cold temperatures to hit this weekend and into next week. As you prep your homes and your pets, Cameron Park Zoo is prepping their facility to ensure their animals stay warm and healthy.
- Cameron Park Zoo will bring animals inside if temperatures go below 55 degrees depending on their species.
- The animals will be staying in their sleeping quarters which will be warmed between 60 to 80 degrees.
- Some animals will have an increased diet to have enough energy to stay warm.
BROADCAST SCRIPT:
We’ve told you how to protect your pipes and your pets, but how is Waco’s Cameron Park Zoo protecting it’s animals? Reporter Dominique Leh spoke with a general curator on how the zoo is keeping the animals warm.
“These are not pets, these are completely wild animals, and so they require much different care than domestic pets,” Brian Henley said.
Brian Henley is the General Curator at the Cameron Park Zoo, and he says they’re doing an array of things to keep the zoo animals warm when the cold front hits.
“We’re making sure that all of our heaters are working in place, all the animals have access to those areas as well, and we’ve made sure that it’s all species specific — that the animals have the correct temperature parameters per different species,” Henley said.
Giraffes are brought in when the temperature reaches 55 degrees, lemurs are brought in at 41 degrees, and lions are brought in when temperatures get below 33 degrees. These cutoffs are based on what the animals can handle naturally and continue being healthy.
“We have coverage for all our animals for different weather events, so this will be extreme enough that we will keep everybody inside,” Henley said.
Due to most of the zoo's animals being tropical, they keep their indoor sleeping quarters between 60 to 80 degrees — another way they’re keeping the animals warm is by changing some of their diets.
“Certain animals we will elevate their food intake so they have enough energy to stay warm,” Henley said.
The animals will be kept inside until we hit about 42 degrees.
Cameron Park Zoo does not plan to close, but there will not be any animals outside in their habitats. The aquarium, reptile house and the nocturnal building will be open.
