Family of black bears play on frozen lake at park enclosure amid cold snap

A family of North American black bears at a Bedfordshire safari park have been spotted playing on an icy lake as they embraced the cold weather.

Mother bear Phoenix and her four yearlings, Harvard, Maple, Colorado and Aspen, were seen rolling around, play fighting and losing their balance after a lake in their enclosure at Woburn Safari Park froze over.

The bears used their paws and noses to scratch at the ice as they cautiously navigated the slippery surface.

Keepers at the park said the animals “had a unique reaction to the ice” while the young bears engaged in playful sparring and “took advantage of their opponents’ unsteady footing on the icy terrain”.

Parts of the UK faced sub-zero temperatures at the weekend, with the mercury hitting minus 18.9C on Saturday morning in Altnaharra, Scotland, making it the UK’s coldest January night in 15 years.

The average low in northern Scotland for this time of year is about 0.3C, while for England, overnight lows are about 1.5C to 1.6C.

The keepers at Woburn Safari Park said the weather has “posed some challenging conditions” but added it is “nice to know that it hasn’t stopped the bears having fun”.