MORNING LIST
How about taking advantage of the summer to explore an animal park? To discover little snow leopards, a polar bear cub or a baby lynx, we show you the direction.
• In Doué-la-Fontaine, two snow leopards
When will we see their snouts in the open for the first time? At the Bioparc de Doué-la-Fontaine (Maine-et-Loire), all eyes are on a small trapdoor through which Jangali and Makalu, the two little snow leopards born on May 23 in a sort of nest, will soon pass. fitted out for their mother, Junga. Only sixteen of their congeners were born in the last twelve months in an animal park in Europe. In the mountains of Central Asia, the threatened species is estimated to number only around 6,500 individuals. In Doué-la-Fontaine, the two (big) kittens, observed by cameras, seriously begin to wriggle. “For the moment, they are a bit like puppies, clogs and a little clumsy, but in a month, it will be madness in the pen! “, predicts Elodie Flautre, animal manager. The site, dug in the Angevin cliffs, has been converted into small cliffs. Their future playground.
Biopark of Doué-la-Fontaine (Maine-et-Loire). Summer timetable: 9 am to 7:30 pm Full price: 23.90 euros. www.bioparc-zoo.fr
• In Mulhouse, a polar bear cub
She is the second cub of Sesi and Vicks, one of only two pairs of polar bears to have offspring in France. Kara was born in November at the Zoological and Botanical Park of Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin). Her 2,000 square meter enclosure, renovated in 2014, is connected to a “maternity lodge” in which her mother was able to completely isolate herself for three months, one of the keys to success, to breastfeed her. Kara can now learn to fish in the glass pond where trout splash around. A moment chosen by the two zoo animators to explain the impact of warming on the melting arctic ice, the natural environment of polar bears. “It is on this condition that these animals are not mascots but ambassadors of climate change”, explains Brice Lefaux, veterinarian and director of the zoo. After getting to know Kara, will visitors see the transformation of ice floes into icicles in a different light?
Mulhouse Zoological and Botanical Park (Haut-Rhin). Summer hours: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Full price: 16.50 euros. www.zoo-mulhouse.com
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