A zoo without visitors: Animal care goes on as revenue dries up amid coronavirus crisis

Belmont Park shuts down and nobody gets to ride the Giant Dipper roller coaster. Legoland closes and tiny plastic bricks don’t get fashioned into buildings at Miniland USA.

By then, butterflies shipped as pupae from Central and South America were already here, some 40 species. They’d been unpacked from boxes in a climate-controlled room at the Safari Park, and pinned upside down to hang in special cases while they did their chrysalis-cracking. It’s not the same as going there, but it’s something: By Friday, people had viewed the butterflies online almost 350,000 times.Together, the 100-acre zoo in Balboa Park and the 1,800-acre Safari Park near Escondido are home to more than 6,300 animals from 1,000 species, as well as more than 700,000 plants in 600 species and subspecies.

No plans, then, to do what a zoo director in Germany said his facility might be forced to consider: Slaughter some of the animals to feed to others. Verena Kaspari, who heads Tierpark Neümunster, located about an hour’s drive north of Hamburg, called that a worst-case scenario in an interview last week with the German News Agency DPA.

The organization employs about 3,800 people, according to its 2018 tax filings. On Monday, furloughs begin for an undisclosed number of them in visitor-services jobs and other positions not related to animal or plant care.Those still working are doing it in staggered shifts to minimize contact with each other in the locker rooms and as they move around the zoo and Safari Park to clean habitats, prepare food, trim plants or do training and enrichment with the animals.

And the care will go on and on. Good.

Could we stop keeping wild animals in captivity? ___

The complete revenue loss easily could have been prevented by letting visitors in and asking them to keep six feet distance from each other.

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Animal shelters across the U.S. are emptying amid coronavirus pandemicPeople forced to wait out coronavirus at home are adopting and fostering shelter dogs and cats to keep them company. The shelters are thrilled. And then they'll fill back up again. New pet parents (and experienced ones) can find some useful tips from Catio Spaces on how to create happy, healthy spaces for all family members during stay-home orders:
Source: NBCNewsHealth - 🏆 707. / 51 Read more »

How ‘Animal Crossing’ Became Coronavirus TherapyPopular videogame indulges a yearning for escapism; ‘a simulation of normal life without any of the stress or responsibility’ So THIS IS WHY there’s suddenly a spate of idiots out killing trout by holding them like this?! Ugh. We love this game in my home! 😂💕
Source: WSJ - 🏆 98. / 63 Read more »

Getty Museum Offers Downloadable Classics for 'Animal Crossing'With the AnimalCrossing Art Generator, the Getty Museum's open-access collection of artwork can be used to select paintings and import them into the simulation game 'Animal Crossing: New Horizons' 'simulation game' 😂 calmDOWNChrissyTeigen Girl this is the joint right here! 😂😂♥️
Source: THR - 🏆 411. / 53 Read more »

Palm Beach County Animal Shelter Empty for First Time EverThe coronavirus has caused untold misery among millions of Americans, but for some dogs and cats in desperate circumstances ... it's given them a life-saving reprieve. will be the same with human prisons in california
Source: TMZ - 🏆 379. / 59 Read more »

Animal shelter celebrates as it empties kennel for the first time in its history during coronavirus outbreak'This is the dream of every animal welfare worker everywhere.' Do you?
Source: YahooNews - 🏆 380. / 59 Read more »

Zoos Look For Ways To Offset An Elephant-Sized Plunge In RevenuesWithout visitors, zoos across the U.S. are scrambling to cover the costs of caring for animals. Some have turned to online fundraisers. 'I'd get out on the highway and collect aluminum cans if that's what it took,' an official at the Birmingham Zoo said. Just please don’t call the Baskins. With the amount of food that gets thrown away every day it shouldn’t be a problem to feed animals in the zoo. There needs to be a better game plan. Call Walmart. It worked for TigerKingNetflix
Source: NPR - 🏆 96. / 63 Read more »