Giant ice cubes and fruit-flavored ice pops helped grizzly bears beat the heat yesterday at Washington State University’s Bear Research Education and Conservation Center as the mercury topped 104 degrees.
Graduate students started making the frozen concoctions last week after learning that record-high temperatures were expected to hit the Pacific Northwest during the weekend. Adult grizzlies and cubs took plunges in a steel pool, straddled microwave-sized ice cubes and devoured mango-flavored ice pops filled with chunks of fish, watermelon and a spray of marshmallows.
Research at the WSU Bear Center is led by biology professor Charles Robbins.