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Ice Pops Cool Down Monkeys in Brazil at a Rio Zoo during a Rare Winter Heat Wave

A spider monkey opens its mouth as frozen fruit is served at the BioParque do Rio amid a heat wave in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. (AP)
A spider monkey opens its mouth as frozen fruit is served at the BioParque do Rio amid a heat wave in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. (AP)
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Ice Pops Cool Down Monkeys in Brazil at a Rio Zoo during a Rare Winter Heat Wave

A spider monkey opens its mouth as frozen fruit is served at the BioParque do Rio amid a heat wave in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. (AP)
A spider monkey opens its mouth as frozen fruit is served at the BioParque do Rio amid a heat wave in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. (AP)

Upon spotting a zookeeper laden with a bucket full of fruit-flavored ice pops, black spider monkeys in Rio de Janeiro’s BioParque gracefully swung their way towards him on Friday, chattering excitedly.

While it's technically still winter in Brazil, with spring due to start on Saturday, a heat wave has engulfed the country since the beginning of the week, causing humans and animals alike to eagerly greet any chance of cooling down.

“Normally they get a break from the heat in the winter, but it’s been so hot. They have even shed their winter layer of fur,” said zookeeper Tadeu Cabral, who handed out some treats, while others were scattered around.

The ice pops are part of the monkeys’ well-being program. They provide thermal comfort, and dispersing the popsicles in different locations also stimulates their behavioral need for foraging.

For the monkeys, the ice pops are watermelon, pineapple or grape flavored. But for Simba, the zoo’s lion, the ice treat is made up of blood or minced meat.

Koala the elephant, now more than 60 years old, was rescued from a Sao Paulo circus in the 1990s. She wrapped her trunk around the block of frozen fruit, placed it under her foot and squashed the treat, before slurping it up.

To cool her down even more, a zookeeper sprayed Koala with a hose.

“Elephants love water. She also throws mud on her back to protect herself from the heat and parasites, like mosquitoes. When wet, the mud layer gets thicker and helps her even more,” said Daniel Serieiro, a biologist at the zoo.

Carlos Acuña, a tourist from Costa Rica, looked on as Koala was sprayed with water.

“It’s great that they’re showering her, that they are making her feel comfortable. The heat is so intense,” he said.

Temperatures are due to exceed 40 C (104 F) in Sao Paulo state and the central-west and north regions, according to the National Institute of Meteorology.

Abnormally high temperatures, caused by global warming, increase the risk of wildfires. On Thursday, firefighters in Brazil’s northeastern Bahia state battled flames fanned by strong winds.

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Dead Sea an 'Ecological Disaster', but No One Can Agree How to Fix It

The Dead Sea has been dying for years - AFP
The Dead Sea has been dying for years - AFP
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Dead Sea an 'Ecological Disaster', but No One Can Agree How to Fix It

The Dead Sea has been dying for years - AFP
The Dead Sea has been dying for years - AFP

An abandoned lifeguard cabin, a rusty pier and mangled umbrellas are all that is left of Ein Gedi, once a spot drawing international tourists to float in the world-famous waters of the Dead Sea.

Now, this lush desert oasis at the lowest point on Earth sits in ruins beside the shrinking sea, whose highly salty waters are rapidly retreating due to industrial use and climate change, which is accelerating their natural evaporation.

The beach has been closed to the public for five years, mainly due to the appearance of dangerous sinkholes, but also because the dramatic recession of the sea's level has made it tricky to reach its therapeutic waters, known for extraordinary buoyancy that lets bathers float effortlessly.
The increasingly exposed shoreline and the sinkholes, caused by a flow of freshwater dissolving layers of salt beneath the Earth's surface, are not new.
In fact, the Dead Sea, nestled where Jordanian and Palestinian territory meet, has famously been dying for years.

Now, with war raging in the Middle East, efforts to tackle this ever-worsening ecological disaster appear to have dissolved too.

"Regional cooperation is the key... to saving the Dead Sea," said Nadav Tal, a hydrologist and water officer for the Israel office of EcoPeace, a regional environmental nonprofit that has long advocated for finding a solution.

"Because we are living in a conflict area, there is an obstacle," he said, describing how the sea has been declining more than one metre (three feet) per year since the 1960s.

- 'Ecological disaster' -

The evaporation of the salty waters in a time of rapid climate change and in a place where summer temperatures can reach upward of 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) has been exacerbated by decades of water diversions from the sea's main source -- the Jordan River -- as well as various tributaries that begin in Lebanon and Syria.

The water is also being pumped out by local factories extracting natural minerals -- potash, bromine, sodium chloride, magnesia, magnesium chloride and metal magnesium -- to sell to markets across the world.

"The consequences of this water diversion is what we see around us," Tal told AFP, pointing to a nearby pier that was once submerged in water but now stands firmly on dry land.

"It is an ecological disaster," he emphasized.

Although some efforts have been made to address the Dead Sea disaster, including past agreements signed by Israel and Jordan, the wars raging in Gaza and beyond have brought regional tensions to an all-time high, meaning tackling cross-border environmental issues is no longer a priority for governments in the region.