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With temperatures continuing to soar in Israel, animals at the Ramat Gan Safari zoo are cooling off in the sun with tasty fruit and fish ice cubes while their human spectators look on in the baking heat:

Safari zoo curator Amelia Turkel:

"To make things special, and even better for them, and to cool down their core body temperature, we give all of them little popsicles, and icicles and fish-sicles and fruit-sicles, all kinds of frozen treats with fish and fruit flavouring. And they absolutely and really enjoy playing with these things as you see, and not only do they have fun, but it really cools them off, because by getting these low temperatures into their mouths it also reaches the parts of the body physiologically which deal with the perception of heat."

But Israelis may have more to worry about than just keeping cool during the heat wave, as experts have warned of strains on the country's energy supply. Israel's Electric Corporation, or IEC, has been advising the public to go easy on their use of household utilities:

IEC's Eitan Sharab:

"We asked the public first not to turn on washing machines, not to turn on dryers, not to turn on dish washers. If they need to do so, and if it's a necessity to do so, and naturally this is needed, not to do it between 10am-5pm, but in the evening hours, at night."

Jerusalem zoo's bears meanwhile don't have such worries, and are just happy to cool off with their ice-cube treats:

Jerusalem Zoo zookeeper Dennis Smith:

"They like it, it's refreshing and sometimes we put watermelon in the freezer and I think they enjoy it. It's refreshing, they play in the water with it"

Temperatures in Israel are set to stay high over the weekend meaning all residents -- man or beast -- will be hoping the supply of ice cubes doesn't run out.