I hope that the zoos that survive will live more within their means.
The people in charge of charitable zoos shouldn't be on 6 figure salaries and future projects should be more economical. Some zoos have spent millions of pounds on spacious enclosures for species that are reasonably common in zoos and are not part of reintroduction projects. Sometimes it seems hard to work out how the exhibits have cost too much and I think some architects etc have charged more than they should have.
One of my favourite exhibits was the rodent house at Berlin Tierpark. This was seemed to be little more than a couple of garden sheds joined together and I doubt if it cost much to make. I also remember the cost of converting an enclosure at Highlands Wildlife Park. £85! That goes to show that zoos can be run economically and may be one of the better things to come out of the current crisis.
I hope you are right and that zoos will be able to come up with creative solutions for animal welfare and enrichment that are within their more limited means.
Speaking optimistically and assuming the vast majority of zoos does in fact survive this crisis, we might see at least for a while a move away from massively expensive exhibit complexes and costly grand immersive designs, and a move towards realizing new exhibits in a more economic way that might not be as aesthetically pleasing, while still paying attention to animal welfare and conservation. I would certainly find that acceptable.
You are again overestimating anti-zoo sentiments. Fortunately the people who comment on newspaper articles are not a valid representation of society, these keyboard warriors are generally much more extreme in their views and make up only a small percentage of the overall population. To put your numbers into perspective, the Antwerp Zoo has 140.000 likes on facebooks and every post sees dozens to hundreds of reactions often more than 1000 likes.
Edit: I found an independent poll (not one of those animal rights ones) from the US from 2 years ago that found 73% of people supporting zoos, 17% against zoos, of with 25% strongly opposed zoos (so only %), 10% of people didn't know. This shows how exagerated your views can get if you base yourself only on social media (my advice, don't even bother to read comments under news articles....)
The most recent Flemish poll I found, from March 2019, was published by the HLN newspaper, which is the same one where I read the comments. In this poll (end of the clip) 12% said yes to "Should zoos be abolished", 7% was undecided and 81% said no.
So that is definitely not bad, but 12% is a substantial minority that could sway some politicians trying to get some votes and attention, and it not I think reason to be complacent or to dismiss such views as no danger at all.
And we have already seen some politicians here in Belgium trying to score points and get votes with anti-zoos moves and views.
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That said, you are right that I should stay away from newspaper and social media comments, and I mostly do, but in this case curiosity won out.
Obviously we can't say for sure at this point exactly what will play out, but bear in mind that there are multiple tactics in play, and if the wait for a vaccine is a longer one there will be other approaches that can combat this at least to a degree in the mean time. The armoury and arsenal we have now is not the one we will have in 6 months' time, or in 12 months', and a huge amount of energy and money will be going into making ways that we can live with the presence of this virus in a less disruptive way (whether that's more and/or better physical shielding, medical treatment, detection, hygiene methods or anything else). It's not going to be a great time for zoos, certainly not in the immediate term, but like most fields the situation will almost certainly improve in time.
The world is not sitting around while this happens (mostly) - once the understandable and necessary urgent crisis response has settled into 'a new normal'* then ways for 'non-essential' and higher-risk activities to resume in some form will start to come through. It's going to be a strange year or two, but if people stick the restrictions that are in place then most things will keep going in some form while the long-term picture sorts itself out.
The animal welfare concerns are actually I think in some ways helpful to zoos - they cannot be allowed by politicians to close tomorrow without a thought beyond the unemployment cheques in the way a theatre, library or sports club could be. Any closures would be difficult and long-drawn out by their very nature, so when the problem can just be paid to go away for a few months I think a lot of politicians would much rather take that option when it comes to the crunch.
*I don't like this rather glib phrase but there's no better one to cover my meaning - it bugs me because it implies this immediate-post-intense-lockdown scenario will be normal forever - when really it will be a temporary normal, one way or the other.
Right now it does not seem like anyone has yet found any solutions other than protective equipment, hygiene measures, social distancing, restrictions on the number of people present and the mandatory or recommended wearing of face masks, and I'm not sure there really are any. But as you say, maybe there will be some. To some extent we will have to live with this virus for some time and we will have to find solutions to do so in ways that are not too bothersome.
That said, I still don't see things like full bars and cafés, music festivals and sporting events with massive crowds and packed zoos happening again anytime soon. Some things I don't see resuming at all for the next year or more, and others will probably only happen again in a restricted and possibly less pleasant form (like zoo visits). If things depend entirely on people sticking to the rules, I fear that things look grim. You always have a substantial minority that just doesn't want to, and they will always ruin it for everyone, sadly.
Society is more conscious of animal welfare concerns these days, and that argument has some sway with politicians, but in many countries I have not so far seen that working in favor of zoos, or really having been a matter of debate at all. In most countries there hasn't really been any discussion of zoos being supported by the state yet, and I don't know what would happen if they were to ask.
The current situation will be very challenging for zoos, as they lose income right now. In the long run this crisis might actually strengthen zoos. Firstly, expect long-term travel restrictions, which makes that people will have to spend their holidays and leisure budget in their own country or in their neighboring countries, which will mean that zoos will take their share of this expenditure.
The current restrictions also show the importance of going out, being in touch with nature and this will benefit zoos as well. On top of this the education role of zoos is stressed again with the source of this crisis most likely being wildlife trade.
And expect zoos to open before summer is over, people need to go out and zoos will be among the places that can offer that safely. There will be visitor restrictions though and the question if this outweighs the increased costs for some of the zoos.
And on Antwerp. No Flemish politician will let them fail, they are too important as an institution for the country.
I really hope you are right.
I'm not sure a large interest in zoo visits is something you want right now. You really don't want huge crowds, and with the restrictions it might make it difficult and frustrating to actually get a chance to visit, even for people who have been members for over 20 years.
Some people have been trying to bend the lockdown restrictions into an argument to attack the keeping of animals in captivity, so I hope you are right about it showing the need for nature-related recreation and the chances for education and conservation action.
I do agree that zoos potentially offer a safe way for people to go out once the epidemic is sufficiently under control, and while there will be restrictions, I would think that less revenue would still be better than very little at all right now.
I hope you are right about politicians not letting Antwerp fail - in a major crisis anything can happen and even institutions can be left behind in the swamp.
With regards to Antwerp I am seriously considering spending some of my savings to participate in the animal adoption program as an extra support to them.
