Chimpanzees kept cool in the sunshine at Edinburgh Zoo over the weekend with the help of tasty ice treats.
Keepers prepared frozen grapes and orange and blackcurrant flavoured lollies for the troop of 13 endangered Western chimpanzees basking in the attraction’s award-winning Budongo Trail.
Temperatures were predicted to soar to 27C with Scotland enjoying the warmest day of the year. But while the most extreme heat failed to materialise, the chimps were still grateful for a cooling treat.
Keepers tossed the frozen fruit and various sizes and shapes of flavoured ice balls made from diluting juice from a balcony, for the group to share.
Visitors were entertained as the chimps put on a show, scrambling to gather their favourite treats before settling down to savour them.
Chimpanzees who lapped up the treats included the oldest resident primates, 47 year olds Louis and Lucy, to the youngest, fun loving five year old Masindi and her big brother Velu, aged 11.
Other chimpanzees entertaining the crowds of visitors included Masindi and Velu’s mother Heleen and dominant male Liberius, the largest in the troop.
One young chimp lover said: “They’re absolutely loving their ice lollies.”
The Western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) is a subspecies of the common chimpanzee — one of the five types of great ape along with gorillas, orangutans, bonobos and humans.
Highly intelligent, they are the closest living primate to humans, sharing 98% of our DNA, and live up to 60 years in captivity.
The Zoo’s Budongo Trail enclosure is designed to represent chimpanzees’ natural habitat in the rain forests of West and Central Africa.
