Wellington is a miracle. At 32, this Rockhopper penguin, who calls the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago (USA) home, is no spring chicken, considering the average Rockhopper’s lifespan (in the wild) is only 10 years. Even with a few added years due to captive breeding, Wellington is the living embodiment of Ian Fleming’s vision that You Only Live Twice!
A couple of weeks ago, a surge in the number of Coronavirus infections across the world caused most places of cultural and tourist significance to down shutters. And since the public were prohibited, Wellington’s caretakers decided to throw open the facility for him and friends.
What followed next was a stream of captive animals debuting on Instagram in videos (like the Colchester Zoo in the UK) that show them watching in wonderment when they spot another species; such videos offering the proverbial silver lining to a human race wired to look for one in every debilitating situation.
It takes a lot of work for the upkeep staff in such facilities to committedly offer care for captive animals.
Case in point: it is already the nesting season for penguins, and animal care staff at the Shedd Aquarium noticed it when Rockhoppers and Magellanic penguins started collecting “sturdy twigs and stones”, and the zookeepers do their bit to help the penguins along by providing materials like “lavender sprigs, fig branches, grape vines and pebbles”, reads a social media post from Shedd.
A penguin at the Colchester Zoo | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
In case of a tourist or cultural site like a museum or a national park, or where the work is more hands-on, to continue to go about one’s business while still keeping in mind social distancing and watch over one’s own health can be taxing. An example of this is Jay Brewer of The Reptile Zoo in California (USA), for whom his interest in nocturnal species is only exceeded by his reputation as the “American Steve Irwin”. Jay is known for the dozens of videos that show him working with snake and reptilian eggs that make one squirm. With a razor blade in his hand, he slices them open and out pop baby snakes covered in goop, blood and gooey material. “... it’s kinda a new world we are living in. Hopefully, it will end soon somehow like it started. This is the week to stay home. We will see the curve flattened and fall,” writes Jay in one of his recent Instagram video posts, shot from on site, with very little staff around, even as he holds baby snakes fresh out of egg shells wearing a ‘Snake Dad’ T-shirt.
But the recent case of a Malayan tiger named Nadia presumably contracting the Coronavirus from an asymptomatic zookeeper at the Bronx Zoo — the ripple effect of which saw tiger enclosures in Indian zoos in Mysuru and Kolkata, for instance, being sprayed with disinfectants — complicates things, and puts the nature of work for upkeep staff in such places, in the spotlight.
A sea lion at the Colchester Zoo | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Man management
For instance, the National Park Service (NPS) in USA, which administers as many as 419 properties — 62 of which are designated national parks that attract a lot of tourists — and employs over 12,000 people, says that though there is no federal lockdown diktat, public buildings have been out of access since March 16. As such, maintenance services are operating at limited capacity but the outdoors are not inaccessible for the public.
“Maintenance staff continue to collect trash, clean occupied spaces and monitor building systems, following the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent the spread of infectious diseases,” says Leslie Obleschuk, public affairs officer, Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. This 55-acre park with its centrepiece — the Independence Hall, where the United States’ Declaration of Independence and Constitution were both debated and adopted — attracted 4.53 million visitors in 2019, and has offered its maintenance crew personal protection equipment, while advising staff to observe social distancing guidelines. “Our logistics and public health specialists are coordinating through a supply chain to keep our field staff equipped, safe and informed on the latest guidance from the CDC,” Obleschuk adds.
A couple in protective masks during the Coronavirus outbreak walk past the Philadelphia Museum of Art | Photo Credit: Matt Rourke/AP
Duty calls
In Alberta, Canada, much like in the US, the provincial government, while declaring a public health emergency, has not imposed a lockdown. This allows for provincially-operated museums like Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and other historic sites, which are classified as “essential services” for the sake of safety and care of Alberta’s prehistoric and historic collections, to remain functional (meaning critical research work is allowed to continue) although the facility remains out of bounds for Alberta’s residents. “All government employees are still working on site,” says Lisa Making, Director of Exhibits and Communications, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, adding that the staff have been following social distancing measures when on duty. “We are adhering to all measures outlined by Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer, and are making sure all areas of the museum are regularly disinfected.”
In contrast, the six-storey, 36,000-square-metre facility that is the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, which houses several thousands of fossil collections, and, among others, a colossal squid that weighs nearly 500 kilograms, has opted to delegate maintenance activities to a skeletal staff keeping guard of the facility. “Our security team is looking after the building and the collections,” says Kate Camp, head of marketing and communications at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The museum, attracts at least 1.5 million visitors every year. The island nation entered lockdown midnight on March 25. “New Zealand’s lockdown is in place for at least three more weeks, but we are making plans now about how we will manage the flow of visitors in the building [once it is lifted],” Kate adds.