In the early-winter deep freeze that has hit Ontario, the warmth and well-being of animals in the Toronto Zoo might seem a cause for concern.

But while the weather is certainly frightful, particularly for the beasts like giraffes, hippos and rhinoceros, who have evolved to the warmer climate of African savannahs, the zookeepers are well versed in keeping the wide range of animals healthy and entertained throughout the winter.

“When the zoo was designed it was built with four tropical pavilions,” said Eric Cole, the Scarborough-based Toronto Zoo’s Wildlife Care Manager. “They’re climate controlled regardless of the weather. We do have animals that are cold hardy species, and this is a normal winter for them.”

That, of course, includes the zoo’s polar bears, who revel in the extreme cold, and snow leopards, who “lie down and use their tail as a scarf, they wrap it around their nose and they’re happy,” Cole said. The grizzly bears just hibernate — “80 per cent” of the time, Cole says.

“For caring for the wolves and the tundra animals and polar bears, the hardest thing is keeping the zookeepers warm,” Cole said. “Where we find it most challenging are animals from the African savannahs.”

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But it’s not as simple as keeping those animals indoors all the time. The zoo’s lions, for instance, like to spend some time outdoors even in a snowy deep freeze.

“The big cats are surprisingly cold resistant,” Cole said. “The lions have access — they can go into the house or outside in the exhibit. Most days they’ll sit in their cave which has a heated floor.”

The zebras are fine outside, as long as it’s not icy. Rhinos and hippos turn into wintertime couch potatoes and stay indoors, along with the giraffes.

The gorillas don’t like the cold either, but Cole said that this year, they ventured outside for at least a little while until it got double-digit cold in late December. Now, as the temperatures reach rock bottom, the gorillas are back inside — and the biggest problem that zookeepers are dealing with for them and other animals is one that’s familiar to any parent keeping schoolchildren at home for a snow day.

Boredom.

So zookeepers spend much of the zoo’s off-season keeping the animals occupied with what Cole refers to as “behavioural enrichment training.”

“We do a lot more behavioural enrichment training, a lot more switching the animals around in environments, a lot more training with the keepers,” he said. “We provide a lot more stuff like sand, bedding, straw, stuff they can muck around in.”

The zookeepers also devise games and challenges for the animals — using so-called “enrichment items” that keep the animals engaged.

“We make sure their time is occupied more like it would be in the wild when they’re foraging,” he said.

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The giraffes, for instance, don’t just get their food in a pile. “We hang it at heights and put it in different items they have to get it out of.”

“There are websites we go to, to buy a huge variety of enrichment items for every animal, from the smallest primate to elephants,” he said. “The size is size-appropriate to whatever animal we’re giving it to.”