Spring is just around the corner, and most of the animals at the Great Bend Brit Spaugh Zoo enjoyed the warmer weather last week – especially the bears, who spend the coldest days sleeping for the most part.
Zoo Director Ashley Burdick recently recorded a video of Piglet, one of the grizzly bears, splashing in the pond. Her brother Pooh decided he wanted to go back to bed so Pooh has been out and about while he’s still being lazy inside, she said. The video can be found on the zoo’s Facebook page, along with videos of lions enjoying a gift of used tires, now re-purposed as giant cat toys. (The Facebook post claims the tire in Luke the lion’s yard is probably his favorite toy of all time.)
The females can also be seen playing with a tire in their yard. Within a few minutes of them getting the mid-size SUV tires, the tires already had several holes throughout, Burdick said, adding lions have a bite force of 600-1,000 pounds per square inch (psi), compared to about 162 psi for humans.
It’s acceptable for zoo residents to go a little wild at spring break (see what we did there?) but the humans who visit the zoo need to behave themselves. For this month’s Zoo News, Burdick shared these thoughts about proper zoo behavior for the humans who visit:
We know the weather is nice and people are eager to get out of the house and come see the animals, but here are a few reminders.
• Our animals receive specially planned and formulated diets for each individual. Feeding them items you may think are harmless could seriously impact their health and even cause death. For instance, a pig eating salt will kill it and certain fruits can make animals like the lemurs very sick. You can also cause fighting in exhibits with multiple animals, leading to severe injuries. If you are caught feeding the animals, you will be escorted out.
• The fences are there to not only protect our animals from people, but to protect you from our animals. If you are caught jumping over any barriers, you will be escorted out.
• This is the home of the animals, you are here visiting them. Screaming at them, trying to hit or harass them and throwing things at them will result in, you guessed it, you being escorted out.
We consider these animals to be part of our family and just like you wouldn’t want strangers doing any of the above to your family, we don’t want it to happen to ours. Please be respectful when visiting our animal family.
Save the date
The Great Bend Earth Day celebration at the zoo is set for Saturday, April 26, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Businesses, organizations and food vendors are encouraged to participate in the community celebration by contacting Zoo Director Ashley Burdick at 620-793-4226, or email her at zoocurator@greatbendks.net. There is no charge to participate as a vendor. The deadline for booth sign-up is April 1. The Zoo can supply tables for vendor booths. In case of inclement weather, the staff will also offer indoor vendor space.
