How the Moscow Zoo will operate during winter season

The Moscow Zoo will reduce its operating hours by an hour as winter approaches. As of 1 November, the Zoo will be open from 9 am till 5 pm and the ticket offices will work from 9 am till 4 pm. This is a seasonal schedule change. This switch to the winter schedule is due to the seasonal differences in the amount of daylight during the day. Warm-weather-loving animals are gradually being transferred to indoor enclosures.

The winter schedule will be in place until 28 February. Pavilions and indoor enclosures will remain open for admission throughout the winter season. Animals that are resistant to cold weather will stay in enclosures with open-air grounds. These are polar bears, fur seals and sea lions, wolves, foxes, polar foxes, Amur tigers, snow leopards, pumas, musk sheep, arctic wolves, Far Eastern leopards, lynxes, gray seals, Dagestani turs, markhors, blue sheep and other cold-tolerant species.

The African ground hornbill chicks and the Guinea turaco have already moved to warm aviaries in the Birds House. The great cormorants and the Dalmatian pelicans will spend the winter in the Birds and Butterflies Pavilion. Zoo keepers have got indoor aviaries ready for the African crowned cranes, Stanley’s cranes and some other birds that occasionally leave their shelter for a winter stroll.

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The secretary bird is getting used to its aviary in the Birds House where visitors will be able to marvel at this rare African bird throughout the winter season. The flamingos, too, will be transferred to an indoor aviary as soon as water in the Big Pond, their current home, will start to freeze.        

Samson the giraffe, one of the zoo’s old-timers, has settled down in its winter quarters, the Giraffe’s Home. Sue the tapir, the Grevy’s zebras and the ostrich have all moved to indoor enclosures in the Hoofed of Africa Pavilion that will also accommodate the dik-dik and sable antelopes, the meerkats and other representatives of the African fauna. The capybara family has been transferred to a warm shelter not far from the Humpless Camels of South America Pavilion. These animals are fairly sensitive to temperature changes and will spend the whole winter indoors.

A special programme, Warm Evening Tours, will be launched to enable visitors to gain more knowledge about the world of animals and watch its representatives during winter.

“Starting from November, the Moscow Zoo will launch the season of “warm evening tours” around the pavilions on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6.30 pm till 8 pm. Visitors can choose one of two tours – The Mystery of the Tropical Forest or the Feathered Inhabitants of the Moscow Zoo – and for an hour and a half immerse themselves into the atmosphere of a warm summer evening, watch rare animals, listen to their voices and learn more about wildlife,” Moscow Zoo General Director Svetlana Akulova said.

Online tickets for “warm evening tours” are available on the zoo’s website.

In around three weeks, animals will start going into hibernation. The jerboas are the first to go dormant. These rodents will fall into anabiosis until spring, their body temperature dropping to eight degrees Celsius, their breathing and heartbeats becoming virtually indiscernible and all metabolic processes slowing down. Zoo keepers are now giving the jerboas more fat-rich seeds, monitoring their weight increase dynamics and gradually cooling down the temperature in the enclosure. When a jerboa stops gaining weight, it is ready for hibernation. It is then transferred into a small sponge-insulated wooden box and placed into a special refrigerator. During the winter, zoo keepers will regularly observe the hibernating jerboas, checking their weight and other vital signs.

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The dormice and hedgehogs will go into hibernation by the middle of November, all by themselves. Zoo keepers have already supplied the dormice with camel’s and wolf’s hair from which they will make warm nests for their winter sleep.

“You can now see that the North American racoons have grown slightly fatter and rarely leave their homes. Normally, they sit on the branches of a larch or walk around their homesteads. When it gets colder, all the racoons will get together in one home to keep themselves warmer and will fall asleep. Unlike the jerboas, the racoons may awaken during winter to see if spring has come. The racoon dogs hibernate in a similar way. The marmots, too, have put on considerable weight and are getting their burrow ready for winter, covering it with hay and sweeping away the dirt. As soon as the temperature falls below zero, the marmots will plug the burrow hole with an earth plug and go into hibernation mode,” Svetlana Akulova said.

When winter sets in, the female brown bear and the Himalayan bear couple will fall asleep in their artificial dens. They are already noticeably less active now than during the summer. Throughout the autumn months, the bears were given plenty of nutrient-rich food, including nuts, honey, juicy fruits and vegetables. The bear’s body temperature only slightly drops during hibernation. As these animals sleep with one eye open, visitors are requested to be quiet near their enclosures so as not to disturb the bears.

You can learn more about animals with the help of the Moscow Zoo’s audio guide. It contains 80 interesting stories about animals, birds and reptiles. Compact players with earphones can be borrowed in a souvenir kiosk near the zoo’s main gateway. Also, visitors can use a free mobile phone application for general and theme tours around the zoo.