THERE’S nothing like a cooling ice lolly on a sunny day – and it seems that it’s not just humans that enjoy the prospect of the frozen treats on a stick.
A family of otters at the Blue Planet Aquarium in Cheshire Oaks is also going crazy for their very own versions – fish-flavoured ice lollies.
The lollies in question, each containing a mixture of mackerel, trout and squid, are part of an ongoing environmental enrichment programme for the aquarium’s family of Asian short claw otters.
The fishy treats are frozen into blocks of ice with a large wooden stick attached and then placed in their diving pool.
Exhibits manager Tom Cornwell says the fishy lollies serve a double purpose of keeping the otters cool on sunny days and encouraging them to work harder for their food and utilise their natural scavenging instincts. Previously keepers have hidden the food around their enclosure so they have to go foraging for it.
“Otters are intelligent, inquisitive animals,” said Tom.
“We’re always trying to introduce new things to keep them stimulated and the fishy ice-lollies provide an interesting and unusual challenge for them during the summer. We’ve added the sticks as it gives them a non-slippy surface to hold onto while they’re wrestling with the lollies in their pool,” he added.
As their name suggests, Asian short clawed otters are found across southern Asia including India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.