While Others Evacuate, Tampa Zoo Staffers Hunker Down, Chop Veggies and Comfort Residents
More than 1000 animals reside in Florida’s ZooTampa at Lowry Park, which happens to be just ten miles from the waterfront. When Hurricane Milton blew through town this week, a dozen brave zoo staff hunkered down with their charges, even as other humans had hightailed it out of the mandatory evacuation zone.
Earlier in the week zoo workers moved larger animals – elephants, giraffes, primates – into “hurricane proof” nighttime shelters next to their usual outdoor habitats. Smaller animals, such as penguins and porcupines, were also taken inside. Alligators – one of the few creatures used to Florida weather – remained in their usual habitats, artificial pools in which they submerged for safety.
“We have the staff there that know them and can watch and monitor their behavior and give them what they need to ensure that they’re comfortable,” ZooTampa’s senior director of animal programs, Tiffany Burns, tells the New York Times.
Relocating a thousand animals was only part of the job. The staff also boarded-up windows and prepared food – chopped veggies, bamboo stalks, hay – for the many mouths they would have to feed (including their own), enough to last for weeks, just in case. “We want to make sure that we are prepared not only for the storm but for the time after the storm,” Burns says.
Not far away, the Florida Aquarium – which lies right on the water – decided to send its staff home just hours before Milton hit the coast. “Everyone is standing down,” says aquarium president Roger Germann. “We boarded the place up and secured it, and they are headed home before things get crazy.”
In days before the storm, the staff had moved sensitive corals to other locations for safekeeping. Penguins were moved to higher ground (upstairs). All have been well fed and can be monitored on cameras from afar – as long as power holds up.
ZooTampa via new York Times
Photo credit: KHOU 11 via YouTube
