Rio de Janeiro is sweltering in the hottest summer in half a century. Meanwhile animals at the city's zoo are spending the day eating ice cream and frozen meals, in an effort to beat the heat.

 

Amid temperatures well above 40 degrees celsius, frozen fruits and ice pops are among the bears' favorite snacks.

The 12-year-old brown bear avoids the heat by swimming and eating frozen watermelon, and ice cubes with chunks of pumpkin and papaya.

Rodrigo Costa, Biologist, said, "We always try to stimulate the animals' cognitive, intuitive and motor abilities. One of things that we use is frozen fruits. We have been feeding them this food more frequently amid the heat. We have never experienced so much heat in this city."

Costa added that the food also amuses the animals. They sometimes spend hours figuring how to eat the huge ice cubes with treats.

"The results of the feeding are good. We notice that the animals stay cool and develop their thinking skills. They stay much calmer." Rodrigo Costa said.

While thermometers keep hitting record temperatures, the zoo will keep feeding animals the ice meals.

In order to provide more shade, tree branches will only be cut down once the the summer ends.