It's not only humans whose lives have been deeply impacted by the global coronavirus pandemic. Major changes in human behavior affect animals, especially animals who are domesticated or in captivity. Just ask my dog, who has been getting 300% more belly rubs and has never been happier. But though house pets are getting more attention these days, zoo animals are getting much, much less. And some animals are handling this change a lot better than others.
Someone asked zookeepers of Reddit: "how are the animals acting differently now that there are no visitors to the zoo?" These 26 people who work at zoos share how the lack of visitors has affected the animals:
1.) From Frogchix08:
For a lot of our animals, having the ability to interact with guests is actually extremely important. Even for primates to be able to play with kids through the glass, they are missing out on a lot of enrichment. Guests keep a lot of the monkeys entertained. I watch our guests all day long show our marmosets and capuchins selfie cameras and they LOVE to see their reflection. Guests will also show videos on their phones to animals and the monkeys totally enjoy it.
We have a rescue cockatoo named Row who sings “row row row your boat” to guests. When little kids dance and sing it to her, she gets really excited and feeds off their energy. So do our other cockatoos on exhibit. But now without guests to show off for, every now and then when it’s quiet we’ll hear her start “row row row...” and then she stop and huffs a bit and gets really quiet and sad because she has no one to sing to. Some of our animals REALLY miss having kids to show off for.
You also have to remember that animals in zoos for the most park have grown up totally accustomed to being around people 24/7. They’re not wild animals at all really. They’ve grown up in a very different social dynamic. Quite a few animals get noticeably depressed in the winter months every year when we have few guests, and then perk up in the spring when we get busy.
2.) From sdooj:
Most of our animals are happy as long as we can keep their routines, feeding times etc. For some they need a little extra. We do public encounters with our koalas, wombats and snakes among others so we spend an hour or so a day cuddling and handling these animals to keep them happy. A few of hour koalas really fret if they don't get their cuddles. Otherwise we just try to continue to spend time with animals that are expecting human interaction and of course we can take things for walks around the place like I'm sure you've seen at other zoos. Our wombats love a run and sniff, dingoes as well.
3.) From CursedUmbrella:
Due to temporary staff cuts, they no longer have the people to regularly walk the wombats. Some of the wombats are holding the keepers personally responsible. Imagine having a 20kg chunk of muscle with big rodent teeth mad at you.
4.) From thegoldensnitch9:
In our local zoo the apes started to miss the visitors so they brought in an artist in who's now just painting in the empty monkey house so the apes have someone to watch.
5.) From BanditRecon:
My girlfriend is a zookeeper and animal behaviorist. She says their animals are becoming stressed. One of their African Grey birds has been plucking his own feathers.
She also mentioned that because they can’t touch many of the animals due to the virus potentially spreading to another zookeeper, many of the animals are looking and acting depressive, not eating well, etc.
6.) From Qicklash:
I'm an aquarium keeper, and I've certainly noticed a change. Fish are not as stressed as they use to be, as there are no longer children stomping around and banging on glass screaming "NEMO, NEMO, ITS NEMO" at every clownfish. We brought some of our younger penguins down to let them watch the fish, and they were intrigued but confused as to why they couldn't catch them through the glass. Our octopus has become much more friendly as well, and instead of hiding all day from people, enjoys playing with small baby toys or solving food puzzles. Its been nice. I wish there were guidelines people had to sign to behave at zoos before entering, but at the same time, they are the lifeline we so desperately need to keep functioning.
7.) From OscarTehOctopus:
Fellow octopus keeper here. Without the crowds scaring her into her cave, our GPO has gotten straight up fiesty. She's so active, I've encouraged our parrot keepers to go past her when taking the birds on walks just for a little extra visual stimulation. She's got quite the love affair with one of the cockatoos.
8.) From fuscescens:
I take care of fish, but mostly jellyfish. The jellies don’t give a single fuck. It’s been nice for me though because I can turn most of their display lights off so less algae grows and I have to do less scrubbing.
My actual fish don’t care. The beluga whales were screeching at the cleaning crew the other day which was hilarious. I don’t work with the whales but it seems like they enjoy, or are at least interested in, seeing others around.
9.) From Grandpas_Cheesebarn:
My wife works at the gift shop for our zoo and the other day we had to go move some stuff around in the store because due to some heavy rains, it had flooded a bit.
Of course we took a lap around the empty park (other than the keepers and few maintenance workers) and found that all the animals were really active and playful. A lot of them seemed really curious about us too. I’m sure they get used to seeing crowds every day and were starving for attention.
10.) From Pyrocephalus-rubinus:
As a zookeeper coordinator I’ve been working at the now closed zoo almost every day for the past month. Animals that are free roaming (peacocks, iguanas) are more active, and follow keepers around like they usually do with visitors. Most of the others don’t show much change in behavior. Although birds like swans and flamingoes are using the edges of their habitats more.
11.) From Avynn:
Theres a bit of a balance of different behaviours that is kinda interesting. With no visitors there is more time for enrichment, to get more creative with said enrichment, trialing new things, and exposure to enrichment that has to be supervised which the animals are loving. Then there are certain animals that do seem to miss having public around - our younger (<5 years old) African Penguins are really seeming to miss being able to swim at the glass and interact with people. Higher intelligence animals we have had to come up with new interactions, lots of new training going on because they are "missing" the variety and variability of interactions with the public.
The snakes don't give a f*ck though.
12.) From Chegang:
The two pygmy hippos, six bison, giant anteater, and lowland tapir I took care of (I'm temporarily laid off) didn't have any change in behavior.
Sulcattas are still assholes.
13.) From nicklo2k:
I work on an activity farm. There is a 22 year old Shire horse. He acts like a dick when there are customers around. With no customers, he's actually still a dick. That being said, he's still awesome.
Edit: I've been asked what he does when there are customers. Basically, if he sees any customer feeding any other animal in the large barn where he hangs out in the day, he will stare at them and stomp his front hoof on the ground. That guarantees they look at him. If they don't immediately come over to feed him, he will start kicking the heavy metal bars that divide his area and the pen next door. This makes one hell of a noise. And he will keep it up, all whilst staring at the person with the food. If they feed him then he rewards them by slobbering all over their hands as he takes the food. Also, at the end of the day he is really good at telling the time. He knows when we close and what time he should be released from the barn and taken to the field/stables where he spends the night. If he isn't let out bang on time he starts kicking the shit out of the gate at the back of his pen. This is a big metal gate and it sounds like someone playing a giant glockenspiel with a sledgehammer. He will keep this up until it is opened.
Some customers are just scared to hand feed him. He is massive and his mouth is big enough to easily fit someone's hand in. Some customers come up to me with their bag of food and ask me if I will feed him, because "He keeps staring at me but I'm a bit too nervous to feed him". I happily oblige. I love that ornery old bastard.
14.) From fleshcoloredbanana:
Horse trainer/Barn manager here. My farm has 46 horses, about half are privately owned and boarded with us. Like most farms across the country we are completely shut down to all but essential staff. The horses are mostly pretty happy to eat, hang out, and do horse things. We keep our horses turned out 24/7, which helps them remain healthy, happy, moving, and socializing. They are starting to lose muscling at this point, with being worked/ridden. Months or years of conditioning just disappearing by the day. But it will come back once they are all in work again. But I can tell that they are missing human interaction. My personal riding horse was giving me the cold shoulder yesterday, probably because of the lack of attention. I have been trying to give the boarded horses extra attention, I am sure their owners are missing them terribly right now. They all seem to lean in a little more when I brush them these days.
15.) From Xanlthorpe:
Actually, you can check the live cam video feed and see for yourselves:
San Diego Zoo Live Cams
16.) From FriedCockatoo:
Not a whole lot of change, but animals definitely missing out some enrichment of seeing guests, especially the otters that follow the kids in the glass under water. Takin, Maned wolves, bison, gibbons, BoPs, Lions, etc all are about the same. Some of our animals that are skittish have been standing closer to the fence where guests usually are (zebras, gazelle) which is nice.
It's kinda this weird balance of being both more and less stressed. On the one side, I don't have to worry about keeper talks or BTS tours and I have more time to get everything done and spend more time with animals. On the other side we're skeleton crewed and there's less of us to care for the whole zoo so I'm working a lot more in areas I don't usually cover as often.
There's one kangaroo that still tries to box me while the emu is shifting 🙄 The one peacock still really doesn't like taking his medications of course 🤷♂️
I have noticed that the crows in the city are behaving a bit differently as well and are being a lot braver lol
17.) From smokeyhawthorne:
I’ve been watching the Taronga Zoo cams and the seals definitely keep trying to look through the glass for people while the tigers will pace for 40 minutes straight in front of the viewing window.
18.) From Erosenthal:
I’m on day 25 of working at a closed zoo. I work with great apes, and their behavior has changed a bit. They are generally very interactive with the public, so they are seeking even more attention than usual from us.
Some of them were suspicious at first of the overwhelming silence outside now. They were climbing up high and scanning the area looking for everyone.
Edit I forgot to mention the wild animals. We are in a much larger park, and wild animals wander in all the time, but always scatter when the crowds roll in. Now, there’s bucks just walking around, raccoons and foxes out in the middle of the day. And the squirrels... my god, the squirrels.
19.) From PizzaLinter:
The majority of our display birds could care less, however our birds that do flights outside or routinely meet guests and do more interactive behaviors with the public have definitely noticed and they are not cool with their being no guests around. Of course I can only guess, and while this is a bit anthropomorphic, I dont think they understand the change and seem somewhat hesistant to enter a new environment (to them) as we try to maintain their behavioral skills. One of the macaws who is also excited to fly is now always looking around. Pretty sure she expects for 50 to 100 people to be watching her.
20.) From antelopeunfolded:
I work at a very well known and heavily visited zoo. I work with ambassador animals and it’s nice to get a chance to take animals to areas of the zoo they wouldn’t normally get a chance to go to because of traffic etc. BUT, the free ranging geese man.... they are getting mean and territorial. Literal bridge trolls. They might have the hardest time adjusting when all the people come back and they can’t control every pathway!
21.) From Boefixepa763:
The pandas could finally get it on...ten years they have been waiting for people to leave them alone.
22.) From zookeeperNstbernard:
I am a fulltime zookeeper and it’s been difficult since we had to lay off all our seasonal/part time help. More work for those of us still there, but the animals are all still getting top-notch care. We’ve been able to take them out to new places they don’t get to when guests are around. Like taking our porcupine to the manatee building and walking a cheetah past the rhinos. I think it’s fun for them, but I haven’t seen any animals acting differently.
23.) From TheJadedSF:
The walruses are masturbating furiously
24.) From radioactivespiderpod:
Large public aquarium.
It's been only a little different for them. A few of the more timid animals are out and about a little more frequently than usual or changing their active hours (the giant pacific octopus for example).
I expected to see more change in the touch tank areas. Horseshoe crabs don't notice or care which is expected but the whitespotted bamboo sharks are also not really changing their behaviour really either which is good to see. We have cleaner shrimp that have to have more regular food because they're not grooming people anymore but other than that it's just another shrimp day.
25.) From zooolady:
I work for a very large, very busy AZA zoo.
I work with the ambassador animals, so they are animals that are very used to the public. Pretty much like what everyone else has said, the animals are mostly confused that there aren't any people. Our petting zoo animals in particular are super needy. The second they see or hear us they all come running over and start crying for attention. We're trying to give all the animals as much attention as possible, but we're down to a bare bones crew, so it's not as much as we would like.
What I wanted to add, though, because I think it's incredibly interesting, is that we are collecting fecal samples from some of the animals to be tested for cortisol levels, which is a pretty good indicator of stress levels. That way, when guests come back, we can take samples for comparison to see how much guests impact stress.
I think its really cool that we're taking this opportunity to see what we can learn about how guests impact the animals, and to see if there are potentially things we can do even better to improve the lives of the animals in our care. We were really hoping to do some behavioral studies too about things like activity levels, amount of the enclosure being utilized, etc. that are also important considerations for their welfare, but unfortunately we just don't have the time or staffing.
26.) From DefinitelySteveIrwin:
One of our emus loves everyone and makes friends with any new keepers who visit him, and so by extension loves having guests around. With the zoo being closed, he became quite morose for a few days, not acting anything like his usually happy self, because all the new friends he makes everyday were gone. So his keepers began asking people from other departments to stop by, take pictures, point him out, basically act like he's the center of attention. The hilarious little diva has been loving it
For those craving more animal content, via MerylPriester:
you can go to explore.org and view live animal cams from zoos and sanctuaries all over the world.