Introduction

To ease the effects of intense heat in Manaus during the Amazon summer, the Zoo of the Jungle Warfare Instruction Center (CIGS) has adopted a different strategy to care for the approximately 400 animals that live there: distributing popsicles made with meat and fruit. The measure is part of a set of actions aimed at the animals' well-being during the hottest period of the year.

Managed by the Brazilian Army, the zoo houses exclusively species from the Amazonian fauna. The facility provides shelter, treatment and rehabilitation for animals rescued or seized by environmental agencies.
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Duration: 08:08

Interviews:
Maria Eduarda Souza - nursing technician
Mariana Costa - lawyer
Marília Costa - export assistant
Lieutenant Lauren Bazzi - Brazilian Army officer and veterinarian at the Jungle Warfare Instruction Center (CIGS)

Executive Production:
Luciana Tôrres

Editing and Finalization
Alexandre Almeida

Produced by
Amazon Agency

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opening soundtrack

"If we humans feel horrible heat, imagine the animals."

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"Fruit already cools you down, and frozen fruit, I imagine, is even better, that's why they give it to them."

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"We can add some supplements, some things to enrich the quality of that popsicle, as well as providing the more refreshing part, the frozen part, which at this moment is extremely important."

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Lieutenant Lauren Bazzi - veterinarian at the Jungle Warfare Instruction Center (CIGS)
"The basis of the diet, the food itself, does not change. It is calculated according to weight and species, so it is not modified.
What happens is that at certain times of the day, as a form of environmental enrichment, which is something we normally do, we take this environmental enrichment and turn it into a popsicle.
And we take it to the animals. This also gives them water intake, which is extremely important during this period of heat, in addition to the environmental enrichment and the refreshing effect that the popsicle provides."

"Environmental enrichment is a way we find for these animals, wild animals, animals that are in captivity, to feel less stress. So it can take many different forms.
What is most commonly used here at the zoo is food-based environmental enrichment. So we make strings of fruit, hide fruit inside foliage, close it in such a way that the animal can remove the fruit from inside and search for it.
There are also some enrichments that are sensory, so we spread cinnamon throughout the enclosure to stimulate the animal's sense of smell, so that it searches for different scents and smells in that environment. All of this is a mechanism to reduce the stress of an animal that is already living in captivity."

ambient sound

"These popsicles for felines, for animals that eat meat, can be made with either red meat or chicken. This also depends on the basis of the diet they will eat that day. And for the other animals, we use fruit, and the fruit is really based on the animal's diet.
And we choose to put papaya, banana, whatever we have available to provide and whatever is part of their diet."

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Mariana Costa - lawyer
"I'm from the Northeast, from Recife, and I didn't imagine that the heat here was greater than there. Whenever I came, I would say, no, the Northeast is also warm, but here it's much more intense, we're really like a pressure cooker."

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Mariana Costa - lawyer
"We have fans at home, we have air conditioning, we have ways to transform, to make the heat more bearable for us, but they, the poor little animals, stay here. We even wanted a popsicle too."

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Marília Costa - export assistant
"It's a really great initiative. Even though we have infrastructure that can minimize the heat, the animals don't have that, so it's very important for them. If we're already suffering from the heat and we have these facilities, it's very important for them to be able to cool down a little more, because if we're already suffering this much, imagine them with all that fur. So it's really nice, really interesting."

Maria Eduarda Souza - nursing technician
"They feel it, they definitely feel it more than we do, because they are exposed to the sun. And it's very important that they give healthy food to the little animals, fruit."

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Lieutenant Lauren Bazzi - veterinarian at the Jungle Warfare Instruction Center (CIGS)
"We notice that these animals, depending on the species, may have increased activity, while other species may also have a decrease in their activity. So there are those animals that we see more reclusive, those animals that don't want to leave their dens, that spend much of the day, especially the hottest part of the day, inside their dens, while there are other species in which we see an increase in activity.
So these are animals that are constantly walking around their enclosures. And their water intake also increases, so they seek out much more water at this particular time of year."

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Lieutenant Lauren Bazzi - veterinarian at the Jungle Warfare Instruction Center (CIGS)
"We also provide showers. So for the primates, we were able to install an aerator in the water, so that when the water sprays, it sprays into the island, and then the wind carries a little more coolness to these animals.
For some others that don't have these conditions, we provide pools, as well as showers, always during the time when there is a much stronger peak of sunlight."

"Whenever we provide these enrichments, these showers, we notice that the animal calms down a little more, it is somewhat distracted because of the enrichment and the shower, and afterward it becomes a little calmer."

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Mariana Costa - lawyer
"This is my first time experiencing the Amazon summer here in Manaus, and we came to see the tourist attractions and the animals as well. And I came with my sister. It's her first time in Manaus. It's not my first time, but we don't know the city well, so we came to explore it. There are also many different animals. I had never seen a margay cat before. There are birds too. I had never seen a harpy eagle either."

Marília Costa - export assistant
"I've always been interested in getting to know a little about the Army in every city I visit. So this is a place that brings the two together, both the Army and the opportunity for us to see some animals, different animals that we don't see in the rest of Brazil.
So, it's very interesting, which is why we chose to come here."

"There's a very large macaw here. I'd never seen one that big. The margay cat, the jaguar too.
So, they're very beautiful animals that I'd never seen."

Maria Eduarda Souza - nursing technician
"We decided to take a walk. It's been a long time since we came to CIGS, so we came for a stroll. We loved seeing the animals, especially the jaguar. We took several pictures of her from a distance because she looked really beautiful where she was, getting a little sun."

"I like seeing the animals up close, the monkeys, for example, because they are very exposed."

"He had never seen one before, actually, only my other brother had. Then I saw that he really liked it, he really liked seeing the jaguar. He was impressed because he had only ever seen one in drawings."

Child - Maria's brother
"I liked the yellow lion. The jaguar? Yes. It's really big."

Maria Eduarda Souza - nursing technician
"What impressed me the most was also the jaguar. Because when I came here, I saw the black jaguar. As soon as I saw the black one, I got a fright because she had that big face when I was turning around. But it was really beautiful, I liked seeing the spotted jaguar."

Lieutenant Lauren Bazzi - veterinarian at the Jungle Warfare Instruction Center (CIGS)
"It's very important to say that these animals are victims of trafficking, mistreatment and illegal captivity. So these are animals that were previously found to no longer have the conditions to return to the wild.
These animals are vulnerable, and here we try to provide them with the best possible comfort so that they can survive, so that they can live better, so that they can often reproduce as well, and so that we can achieve good success with that species. But the main point is that these animals are not able to return to the wild.
And we try to provide them with the best comfort and a better, more dignified home."

final soundtrack