BOISE, Idaho — This week Boise has seen several inches of snow, and below-freezing temperatures. Through the active weather, Zoo Boise stays open.
- All the animals have both indoor and outdoor sections of their exhibits. They can move freely throughout both.
- The zoo also sets up different heating infrastructure throughout the exhibits.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
If you're like me you've been cold this week and while many of us try to stay indoors, one of Downtown Boise's most popular outdoor attractions, Zoo Boise is still open.
And the animals, are not too different than us when it snows.
"it's kind of like kids on a snow day," said Jeff Agosta with Zoo Boise.
The zoo says it's not just penguins that like the snow. While some of the animals, might not have seen snow, the cold isn't too foreign to them.
"Where a lion might not normally see snow in the wild in their natural range, sometimes it gets cold enough where they can go out and then they have that choice if they want to spend time in the snow or if they want to spend somewhere inside where it's climate controlled," Agosta explained.
The Zoo takes some extra precautions like heated spots in exhibits. The animals all have indoor exhibits where they can choose to go if they don't like the cold. Zoo Boise also engages the animals with snow men.
"Some of our carnivores get snowmen with some meat on top and maybe a little blood dripped on top of it," Agosta said. "At first maybe they're apprehensive then they'll go at it, attack it, or play with it, or climb it."
But snow isn't foreign to all the animals at the Zoo
"Animals like red pandas, snow leopards, I mean snow is in their name, they're actually more active during this time of year," Agosta said.
The zoo says part of every admission to Zoo Boise, as well as 100% of proceeds from their daily animal encounters, and fundraisers throughout the year go to their conservation partners.
They say while attendance slows in the winter, the people who come help sustain that support.
"Our animals are ambassadors for those wild counterparts and so we hope people come here be inspired, have fun, want to learn more about a specific animal, and then hopefully make a change in their life to actually help those species in the wild," Agosta said.
