The supposed crowded and jampacked places on sunny Easter holidays now ask for donations as the lockdown bites zoos in Germany.
Battling also for the zoo's survival, a northern Germany zoo director admitted that they might soon be feeding some animals to others, the Neumünster Zoo's director Verena Kaspari also shared that they will list down the animals that they will slaughter first in order for the place's survival.
A Zoo in Berlin have infant panda twins and Philine Hachmeister, Zoo's spokeswoman shared that the panda twins are adorably sweet but because of the imposed precautionary measures to avoid the spread of the pandemic they can only be watched online.
She also added that they are constantly thinking that the visitors should watch them online because most likely by the time that they will reopen those little pandas can be already grown-ups.
Big animal appetites
Despite the unpleasant idea of killing some animals for the survival of others, Neumünster Zoo's Ms. Kaspari emphasized that even they have already the last resort, it would not solve the financial problem that their facility faces.
She sighted that the penguins and seals needed a large amount of fresh fish on a daily basis, but if the outage comes, she mentioned that they will have to euthanize animals, rather than letting them starve and suffer and worst is they would be feeding some of the animals to others.
Regardless of the financial issues faced by the Zoo and an estimated €175,000 (£152,400) loss of income this spring, Ms. Kaspari's zoo belongs to an association that is not under the scope of the state emergency fund for micro or small businesses.
According to the latest update, Zoos in Germany are jointly requesting for aid assistance worth €100m, aside from the direct appeals for public donations.
Germany's national zoo association (VdZ) disputed that zoos, diverse from other businesses, they can't go into hibernation and cut their costs, as animals still have to be fed daily and looked aftet while a tropical enclosure has to be heated above 20C.
VdZ chief Jörg Junhold emphasized that the lockdown was costing a typical German Zoo an estimated €500,000 weekly lost.
One of Vienna's top attraction sites, Schönbrunn Zoo stated that they can still manage for now by using their existing savings but on April 1, the zoo sent 70% of its 230 employees on three months' furlough - sent home with their jobs safeguarded as Austria has "Kurzarbeit" (subsidized short-time work) system same with Germany, so that most workers do not end up losing their jobs when their employer hits hard times.
Missing Human Contact
Aside from the shortage in their food, some zookeepers have warned the emotional cost for certain animals for they miss the attention that they usually get from the visiting public, while the Berlin Zoo's Ms. Hachmeister shared that the apes especially love to watch people.
She also sighted animals that were fascinated by their visitors and parrots and seals were among them and now it is really boring for them as the lockdown continues.
Last week, Moscow Zoo shared that their two pandas were definitely missing something as started to actively approach every single person who walks past their enclosure.
