COVID-19 effects on zoos and animal conservation

HOMIN96 said:
Combination of nice weather, easment of restrictions and Tasmanian exhibit being open resulted in what exactly was feared - Prague reached its daily limit of visitors around 1pm and had to close for the rest of the day.

Prague's mayor already announced that they are negotiating with the secretary of health to lift the limit as soon as possible.
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It looks like many people had the wrong idea (like me too) that our zoos have no daily limit anymore. Lot of angry people who wanted to visit with their families but came too late are sharing their experience on FB and other media. To keep the limit but allow normal sale of tickets at gate was not so bright idea.
 
Jana said:
To keep the limit but allow normal sale of tickets at gate was not so bright idea.
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We are watching CZ very closely Jana, to give us some hope - as we are still being ruled by fear and incompetence. Your news has always been very positive, but this did look a bit risky.
I guess as none of us have done this before (!) there will always be mistakes.
 
Another batch of changes has been announced. Starting 8th of June, Czech zoos can admit 250 visitors per hectar per day (instead of 150/ha).

Starting 15th of June, Czech republic fully opens borders to tourists from following countries:
Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Cyprus and Iceland.

Foreign tourists from remaining EU/EEA/UK countries need to go into quarantine or have negative PCR test. However, with all border checks gone at that date (with exception of airports), this will be on honour base.
 
Jana said:
Another batch of changes has been announced. Starting 8th of June, Czech zoos can admit 250 visitors per hectar per day (instead of 150/ha).

Starting 15th of June, Czech republic fully opens borders to tourists from following countries:
Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Cyprus and Iceland.

Foreign tourists from remaining EU/EEA/UK countries need to go into quarantine or have negative PCR test. However, with all border checks gone at that date (with exception of airports), this will be on honour base.
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Thank you Jana - UK zoos will not open until into July, maybe even August. By doing this, our Government has effectively stated that their standards are so poor, that the Continental model cannot be copied.

It seems that it will be possible for UK tourists to fly to mainland Europe and visit your zoos before they can visit English ones.

We hope that all the English zoos to survive this will have shown and displayed un-matched resolve in the face of such victimisation, and that we will be able to hold our heads high internationally, even if our Government cannot..
 
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Interesting report on surveys of North American zoos and other animal-care/advocacy facilities looking at financial impact, staffing impact, long-term planning, etc. of closings due to COVID. Shows how hard hit these institutions have been. And with partial openings the pain is not over. This will take more than a season or even a year to recover from
https://adisagroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ADISA-Covid-Survey-Results.pdf
 
It looks like CZ zoos are very close to pre-covid daily attendance now, 8 weeks after re-opening. For example Zoopark Vyškov said the only difference to same time last year is made by missing school groups. Plzeň commented they are returning too. Prague zoo saw almost 8000 visitors on Friday and 13500 today (still no foreign tourists in town).

EU/EEA tourists are allowed to come starting on 15.June (banned are only residents of Sweden, Portugal and the UK for now). Those could bring in some additional funds.

One negative trend is reluctance of local visitors to use public transport. That causes traffic jams. In Prague in last 2 days, all zoo parking was full before 11:00 and cars blocked many km of roads leading to traffic collaps in surrounding areas. Hundreds of visitors gave up after +1 hour in jam and turned away.

Despite recovered visitor numbers, all zoos incurred huge financial losses in March to May. Most investments and larger repairs are deffered or stopped across the board and zoos are searching for additional income and donations. Fortunately, so far no zoo has closed or announced they are close to bancrupcy.
 
Having been to Zoo Salzburg this weekend, I had to realize that
COVID-19 restrictions + sudden heavy rain make for a miserable zoo experience. Despite wearing waterproof clothes, I was drenched with rain and couldn't take any shelter due to the limited numbers of people per indoor enclosure. When even the capybaras refuse to go out, you know it's time to leave. And the moment my parking ticket got so soaked that the machine refused to accept it, I knew it was time to call it a day. ;)
At least it was good weather for the visitors of the WdG. :D
 
A spike in Covid infections in Melbourne has led the Government to reimpose lockdown restrictions throughout the Melbourne Metropolitan area. This means Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and Moonlit Sanctuary will have to shut for six weeks from Thursday the 9th July.

For those wondering what a spike looks like in Australia. we had 191 new infections in the last 24 hours for a total of 772 active cases. That gives us a current infection rate of about 1 in 7,000 residents.
 
For the zoos that have resumed being opened to the public, am I right to guess that their staff are now more hesitant to let people see offshow animals?
 
Hi. Hope this is the right place to ask this, but I was wondering, Did some zoos (like San Diego, London, Toronto or Victoria Zoo) start like an online campaing (like lives through their social media or online tours) while they were closed due to COVID-19? I'm doing some research for a homework about new actions and new ways to promote zoos and conservation while cuarantine and other restrictions, but I haven't been able to find something. I'll be very thankful for your responses :)
 
Carlos M said:
Hi. Hope this is the right place to ask this, but I was wondering, Did some zoos (like San Diego, London, Toronto or Victoria Zoo) start like an online campaing (like lives through their social media or online tours) while they were closed due to COVID-19? I'm doing some research for a homework about new actions and new ways to promote zoos and conservation while cuarantine and other restrictions, but I haven't been able to find something. I'll be very thankful for your responses :)
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Every major zoo (that is, those with the social media professionals and that can afford the bandwith) seems to be promoting daily live "safaris" with keepers and (gasp!) even horticulturists. Facebook is especially popular for these. Look at the Facebook pages of the Cincinnati Zoo, Nashville Zoo, to name a couple
 
Zooplantman said:
Every major zoo (that is, those with the social media professionals and that can afford the bandwith) seems to be promoting daily live "safaris" with keepers and (gasp!) even horticulturists. Facebook is especially popular for these. Look at the Facebook pages of the Cincinnati Zoo, Nashville Zoo, to name a couple
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Are they managing to make an income of any kind from this, do you know? - and if so, how..?
Or are its costs simply being absorbed by their publicity departments and thus actively costing the organisations money..?
 
Andrew Swales said:
Are they managing to make an income of any kind from this, do you know? - and if so, how..?
Or are its costs simply being absorbed by their publicity departments and thus actively costing the organisations money..?
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As near as I can tell most are simply free on-line.
For zoos that have Social Media staff there would be no additional costs (it's Facebook, after all)
I believe that a few zoos have turned their summer camps (which do have a fee) to on-line with take-home materials families can pick up
 
I’m unsure if this has been posted or not but I figured I’d raise awareness for the situation nonetheless.

Thanks to Joel Sartore spreading awareness on his Instagram feed, I found out that Alaska Sealife Center is in danger of permanent closure. Due to travel restrictions and the prolonged closure of zoos and aquariums the Sealife Center has lost lots of money and is currently asking for donations. The facility does lots of important work in Rescuing native marine animals, as well as studies on climate change and generally arctic and sub arctic marine wildlife. Hopefully the Alaska Sealife Center will raise enough money so we don’t have yet another tragic closure, especially of a facility with such rare captive species as Steller’s Sea Lions and Northern Sea Otters. Please donate if you can as every bit counts!
 
Due to the resurgence of Covid-19 and a rapid increase in the number of cases recently here in Belgium under new government rules face masks will be mandatory in all areas that are busy or visited by a lot of people, both public and private, for all persons aged 12 and above, starting this Saturday.

While face masks were already mandatory in indoor and covered areas at zoos, they will now become mandatory in the entire zoo and during the entire visit, with the only exception being while sitting down to eat or have a drink with social distancing of course in order.

Zoo Antwerpen and Zoo Planckendael have already announced this new rule on their Facebook pages and websites. I have not yet seen anything like that from other places like Pairi Daiza, Pakawi Park or De Zonnegloed.

ZOO Planckendael
ZOO Antwerpen

I hope this can help keep zoos and other recreational businesses open longer. Our government is trying hard to not have to close companies and the economy down again and hopefully mandatory face masks will be helpful in achieving that.
 
In most part of Spain masks are now mandatory everywhere, no matter if are lonely places or the center of a big city, is very unconfortable with our very hot weather and many people is cancelling their holiday trips because of this, so I´m afraid zoos will lose even more visitors this year....
 
Andrew Swales said:
Are they managing to make an income of any kind from this, do you know? - and if so, how..?
Or are its costs simply being absorbed by their publicity departments and thus actively costing the organisations money..?
Click to expand...
Here is an article that summarizes what some (USA) zoos are doing online: both free and pay
Virtual Encounters With Purring Cheetahs and Curious Penguins

And a more specific example of a paid service by the Woodland Park Zoo on-line
Video call of the wild: Woodland Park Zoo launches Zoom chats with animals
 
Czech Secretary of Health announced that face masks will be mandatory again in public transport and certain indoor public spaces from 1st September. Seems like animal houses in zoos will belong to this category as well.
 
A question about the above three posts. In your countries how is the forced wearing of masks enforced?
This requirement was introduced in the UK a little while ago, but the authorities or owners of the 'enclosed space' are not allowed to insist that masks are worn and the police have refused to get involved and will not enforce it the requirement. There is supposed to be a £100 fine, but there is no-one to enforce it. Peer pressure works in some parts of the country, but not ion others...
 
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