A safari park opening later this year in Dubai will feature misting machines, cool-water pools and rocks fitted with air conditioning to keep temperatures down.

Design and construction firm Cape Reed are creating the 120 hectare (296.5 acre) site for the Dubai Municipality, and have had to think innovatively in order to ensure the park’s thousands of animals are kept in cool enough conditions in the desert climate. The park is being built in Al Warqa, where temperatures regularly hit more than 40°C.

"Even though it's a hot desert we're making sure that all the enclosures, exhibits and holding facilities are kept at a good safe temperature so these animals won't suffer at all,” park CEO Tim Husband told Dubai newspaper 7Days. "All the cats – lions, cheetahs and tigers – have air-conditioned areas, even the hyenas have got it in some areas."

Dubai Safari Park will open in the last quarter of 2016; four years after construction began. It will replace the old Dubai Zoo.

Cape Reed – who have built several hotels, spas and resorts in Dubai’s The Palm Jumeirah – said they have used green systems and practices to build the park, such as a hybrid operational system, water recycling, waste disposal, recycling facilities, and solar energy.

The development in Dubai’s Al Warqaa district will be divided into three different sectors – African, Asian and Arabian – and will also include an open safari themed around different world locations with architecture to match.

The multi-million dollar project will eventually also include a butterfly park, botanical garden, hotel and golf course.