Animals at Cotswold Wildlife Park cooled down with popsicles and watermelon on the hottest day of the year.

As the temperature hit 31C in Oxfordshire, keepers gave ring-tailed Lemur twins frozen fruit popsicles while a tapir sunk its teeth into a frozen fruit ice lolly for the first time.

Chris Kibbey, assistant animal manager at Cotswold Wildlife Park & Gardens said: "It’s hot, hot, hot here in the Cotswolds, and keepers have to be prepared to keep themselves and the animals under their care cool.

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"The lemurs were given frozen fruit popsicles made using ingredients from their normal diet – berries, pear and grapes which they enjoyed.

"Our tapirs Gomez and Lolita devoured their melon, pear and banana frozen treat in no time.

"For the first time, our Ring-tailed Lemur twins, born earlier this year, enjoyed their first taste of watermelon too."

A new as-yet-unsexed and unnamed penguin chick also surprised visitors by venturing out of its nest box for the first time and enjoyed a cooling spray from the sprinkler before taking its first dip in the Penguin pool.