Oregon Zoo Animals Enjoy Snow day

Everyone needs a snow day now and then, including the animals at the Oregon Zoo. With record snowfalls reaching their highest since 2008, the zoo closed its doors to the humans who were encouraged to stay inside by the national weather service (NWS) in Portland. For the animals, it meant plenty of frolicking in the winter wonderland.

The NWS took to Twitter reporting January 11 was the snowiest calendar day for the Portland area since December 20, 2008. Over a foot of snow – 14.5 inches to be exact — was dumped onto the city by Mother Nature.

Snowfall totals through 4am. Another 1 to 4" to fall today. More details here: https://t.co/vJIpmBqkWW pic.twitter.com/MbA6Hpuh9W

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— NWS Portland (@NWSPortland) January 11, 2017

The Oregonian posted a wonderful video to YouTube which was shared by Reddit users over 26,000 times. Nora, the polar bear, must think she’s home in the Arctic as she dives into the snow, reaches her snout to catch the snowflakes, scratches the snow off a tree and falls into a snowbank – just loving the moment.

The sea otters nose their way onto the snow, barking and paddling along. One otter encourages its playmate to join in the fun by tapping it with its fin as if to say, ‘come on!’

The most curious of all about the white stuff is Samudra, the Asian elephant who is more familiar with tropical temperatures than freezing ones. She cautiously steps out of her enclosure delicately dipping her foot onto the virgin snow. Then she gets into it as she throws snow into the air with her trunk like she is having a snowball fight.

The video was filmed by the zookeeper who had to snowshoe his way to work to feed the animals. From the looks of it, food was the last thing on their minds. It was a fun snow day for all at the Oregon Zoo.