Due to the coronavirus pandemic, zoos have been forced to close around the world.

This is because social distancing guidelines prohibit mass gatherings in order to slow down the spread of the virus. Unfortunately, zoos are nothing if not places for mass gatherings of tourists.

You would think this shutdown would finally give the zoo animals some much-needed quiet but it turns out they’ve gotten so used to the crowds that they’re still showing up for their “meet the public” appointments in one zoo.

That’s what the zookeepers at Orana Wildlife Park, just outside Christchurch, New Zealand, found out. Unfortunately, there are no appreciative crowds to greet them.

The Wildlife Park’s Nathan Hawke has told The Guardian: “People provide great real-life stimulation for the animals, some of our very social animals, such as kea, are thinking something odd is up.”

Nathan says that the rhinos even show up promptly at 3:15 pm every day at the place where they’re supposed to meet the crowds. Getting those daily belly rubs probably had something to do with that.

This has forced zoo staff to find ways to keep the animals occupied.

Nathan continues: “The kea and gorillas particularly seem to be missing people, they really enjoy seeing the public. So [lockdown] is forcing us to think outside the square and go above and beyond for our precious animals.

“It’s about maintaining a new normal and filling the gap that the visitors would otherwise fill.”

In the meantime, in the US, the Texas State Aquarium thought that the lockdown would be a good time for the animals under its care to get to know each other.

At one time, the staff brought a sloth outside the dolphin enclosure and they just went bonkers at seeing the, to them, unusual creature.

While it seemed like an unlikely pairing, the dolphins appeared to enjoy the new encounter.

An aquarium spokesperson told said: “We frequently give the animals a chance to ‘meet’ each other as a form of enrichment, which helps keep them active in body and mind.

“As some of our most popular animals, it seemed an obvious choice for our sloths and dolphins to get a chance to see each other while we were temporarily closed.

“We have another sloth, Xena, but on that day, she was more interested in sleeping than meeting the dolphins!”

 

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