From June 26th till 29th, the province of British Columbia experienced its hottest summer. The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy confirmed that this was a record-breaking weather temperature, and it was the hottest week of the summer. The maximum temperature reached about 45 degrees centigrade in the Lower Mainland.<\/p>\n
Not only was it hard for humans to tolerate the heat, but other animals had a difficult time, including the animals in WPC\u2019s conservation breeding programs at the Greater Vancouver Zoo. There, WPC is breeding, headstarting and sheltering two flagship species for BC wetlands, to ultimately increase the populations in the wild. The Oregon spotted frog is Canada’s most endangered frog, while the western painted turtle is BC’s only remaining native pond turtle. The rising temperatures were closely monitored by biologists at the facility, and the health of the animals was paramount.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, the western painted turtles in our head-starting program are kept indoors, so the biologists had only to turn off their tank heaters.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n