As people empty out of zoos and sanctuaries, caretakers keep animals’ bellies full while calling for donations

Most animals at a zoo see humans standing outside their enclosures with hot dogs and cell phones, and they aren’t impressed.

As zoos and sanctuaries around the globe face extended closures, however, some of their residents might long for more crowded walkways and little noses pressed against the glass, from back when we touched things. Take Ariranha, Thor, Yeyuno, and Matteo, the Philadelphia Zoo’s giant river otters. They might actually miss you.

“Probably for a lot of animals, humans become wallpaper, but we do have some — our Humboldt penguins and our giant river otters — that frequently engage with people,” said CEO Andy Baker. “They do get a lot of stimulation, but there’s few passersby, and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind some more engagement.”

More often than not, the money to pay for food and other care at the nearly two dozen facilities that house animals in Pennsylvania comes from visitors walking through the gates. The Philadelphia Zoo, which draws more than 1.2 million visitors annually, closed on March 17, just ahead of its usual spring rush. It has never been shuttered for this long. In the age of coronavirus closures, caretakers are ramping up the call for donations and trying to keep the public interested.

The Philadelphia Zoo launched a daily Facebook Live program featuring keepers interacting with their charges. Wednesday’s show starred meerkats digging around for meatballs. They stopped and peered upward as a helicopter hovered nearby.

The zoo has also launched a “Spring Back Fund" on its website to “care for our animals and ready the zoo so we can once again welcome guests through our historic gates as soon as we possibly can.”

Zoos and sanctuaries may close their doors, but their work never really stops, Baker said. It’s hardly a skeleton crew. An unnamed sloth bear cub appeared outside last week for the first time, without a crowd of gawkers to greet it. A lemur is due to give birth any day now, and the zoo’s geese are sitting on their eggs to hatch them.

“Life goes on, " Baker said. "A number of things have to carry on, whether we are open or not.”

At the nonprofit Wolf Sanctuary of Pennsylvania, in Lititz, Lancaster County, 56 wolves and hybrid wolf-dogs rescued from all over the country live on 80 acres. The sanctuary, which typically sees a few hundred visitors for daytime weekend tours, closed on March 19. On Wednesday, it canceled Saturday’s full moon fundraiser, where guests can visit the wolves at night and roast marshmallows by bonfires.

Each wolf can eat up to five pounds of raw meat per day, equivalent to about 20 Burger King Whopper patties. “It’s raw meat six days a week and one day of fasting,” said Michelle Mancini, the education coordinator.

Most of the meat is donated. It comes from farmers, hunters who’ve taken deer from areas without chronic-wasting disease, and even from people who have extra unused meat in their freezers.

“We aren’t sure yet if we’ll have to buy meat,” Mancini said.

The amount the wolves require, she said, could cost thousands of dollars a week.

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The sanctuary is hoping to host virtual tours in the future.

The Pittsburgh Zoo is seeking donations through an “Emergency Operation Fund.” The Cape May County Zoo, which is normally open free to visitors, depends on donations even more so. At the Lehigh Valley Zoo, customers can buy merchandise with the hashtag #belikebean — named for Bean, its resident three-toed sloth, a natural social distancer.

“We’re probably basically doing what everyone is doing. We’re trying to sell gift cards, trying to sell memberships,” said Howard Scharf, director of sales at the Lehigh Valley Zoo.

T&D Cats of the World, an animal sanctuary in Penns Creek, Snyder County, is seasonal, and employee Jennifer Mattive said her family is watching the calendar and hoping the pandemic’s curve flattens. The sanctuary is scheduled to open in May. But like zoos and farms, she said, the staff is always working, always seeking donations.

“Financially, this will be a big hit to us, as well as other animal facilities. We do not receive government funding, although many of our animals are government confiscations,” she said. "Admission fees and donations help cover expenses. "

The coronavirus may threaten more than zoo coffers. Baker said scientists believe primates and great apes could be susceptible to it. Keepers who work with them at the Philadelphia Zoo are wearing masks and practicing social distancing, Baker said. The same precautions are being taken around the big cats and red river hogs out of fear they could be vulnerable, too.

“There have been no reports about animals getting sick from any zoo or anywhere around the world, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened," Baker said. “Great apes share just about every disease we humans have.”