Switzerland continues to ease lockdown measures

People watch elephants at the re-opened Zoo Zurich, as Switzerland continues to ease the lockdown measures during the COVID-19 outbreak on Saturday. The Swiss government on Friday said it plans to lift travel and border restrictions from countries in the European Union, the European Free Trade Association, and the United Kingdom on June 15. 

-reuters-

Georgia hunts down another tiger from flooded zoo

TBILISI, Georgia - Georgian police on Friday were hunting down a tiger who escaped from the capital's flood-ravaged zoo after another tiger mauled a man to death before being killed.

"A large feline has been spotted by at least 15 local residents" on the outskirts of Tbilisi, Giorgi Metreveli, a professional hunter involved in the citywide police operation to locate the tiger, said in televised comments.

"The search for the animal is underway," he said.

The Rustavi 2 television channel broadcast a few photos of the tiger that local residents had taken with their mobile phones.

"Professional hunters equipped with tranquilliser darts have joined the police operation to hunt down escaped animals," Giorgi Gibradze, spokesman of Georgia's Crisis Management Council, told journalists.

He said an emergency call centre had so far received 47 reports about animals apparently spotted by people in neighbourhoods across Tbilisi, "but all of them turned out to be false alarms."

On Wednesday, a white tiger that escaped from the Tbilisi Zoo mauled a man to death in the city centre before being shot dead by police.

The zoo said on Thursday that several animals may still be at large.

"But we need to complete a thorough inventory of dead and survived animals to know for sure," a spokeswoman told AFP.

The flash flood at the weekend tore through central Tbilisi, wrecking the zoo and killing 19 people including three zoo workers.

Lions, tigers, bears and a hippo were seen roaming the flooded streets after the disaster and were either shot dead or recaptured and returned to their enclosures.

More than half of the zoo's 600 animals perished in the flood.

Animal rights activists have demanded an investigation into the handling of the disaster, insisting that some of the animals shot dead by police did not need to be killed.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Ice cream keeps Rio zoo animals cool in heatwave

RIO DE JANEIR0 - Brazil - Ice cream, fruit and copious helpings of frozen meat helped keep the sweltering inhabitants of Rio's zoo cool Tuesday as temperatures soared.

Zoo staff handed out the treats as the thermometer touched 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

Chimpanzee Paulinho, 30, bagged two ice creams before bounding off to seek shade, while orangutan Else, 35, and her daughter Tanga, 20, gobbled an assortment of fruit.

Carla the elephant wolfed down 50 kilos (110 pounds) of ice cream dragged in by her handler, while Gabi, an eight-year-old jaguar, preferred to slurp on a hunk of frozen meat.

"The animals have a problem with the heat like all of us -- sunstroke, dehydration, apathy. So we are taking measures to deal with the problems the heat can generate," zookeeper Karla Cunha told AFP.

The zoo has spent weeks preparing stocks of frozen food for the hot and sticky weather which assails Rio this time of year, high summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

The zoo also must ensure the animals have access to water -- via pools or sprinklers. Meanwhile vegetation is left untrimmed to ensure maximum shade.

Providing cool meals "refreshes the animal and stimulates memory function, as well as the palate," Cunha said.

She noted that some of the meat-eaters, notably the tiger, lie on top of the meat as an additional means of keeping cool.

Watching Gabi the jaguar take a pre-lunch pool dip, visitor Aline Montez wished she could join.

"Look how cool he is over there while we're here baking in the heat," Montez quipped.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com