By Patrick May
What are the first steps in the process of evacuating zoo animals?
In the case of the LA Zoo evacuation, officials started monitoring the air for smoke that couple prove dangerous for animals to breathe. Meanwhile, some zoo workers began preparing animals to be moved, just in case, while other helped hose down nearby grassy hillsides that were most vulnerable to wildfire.
Where did they take the animals that were moved?
By Friday afternoon, fire crews were getting the fire contained so the zoo only had to move some animals, including some smaller primates, to another section of the zoo, the Daily Breeze reported. “We turned on our sprinkler systems, and our ground maintenance staff began hosing the hillside by hand. It does not appear that the smoke is causing any issues for the animals but on-site staff is monitoring the conditions,” the zoo said in a statement, adding that it was not necessary to move the animals outside of Griffith Park. “Based on the proximity of the fire, we moved some animals as a precautionary measure. The animals are now on their way back to their habitats. At this time, we do not have an estimate or exact number of birds or primates that were moved.”
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Do all zoos have evacuation plans in place?
Here in California, zoos and animal parks have had decades of practice getting ready for wildfires – and plenty of first-hand experience. Take the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, a major tourist attraction that was originally called the San Diego Wild Animal Park. A 2007 CBS report described how a rash of wildfires in Southern California prompted the park to fine-tune its emergency plan, just in case fires threatened the site. As the report said, the park is surrounded on three sides by coastal sage scrub, highly flammable and a clear and present danger to the facility. “Since 1993, the park has put its animal evacuation plan into action twice,” said CBS. “During the 1993 fire, the California Condors were in harm’s way in the outer reaches of the park.” Michael Mace, the zoo’s curator of birds at the time, told the station: “We have crates and nets and night gear available to our staff and protocols to follow. We can capture all the birds and move them to a different part of the park.” CBS said that for the more than 100 smaller birds kept in the open aviaries, a different strategy was used. “We dig in and we protect those areas with the use of the fire departments and our staff,” Mace said, “because it would be impractical, if not impossible, to catch more than 100 birds that are in a large walk-through aviary.”
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