Goat happy hours?

The Houston Zoo gets creative to keep animals stimulated while shut down

With the absence of visitors since the Houston Zoo’s closure on March 13, workers have had to get creative to keep the animals entertained and provide them with the social interaction they’re used to. Last week, that included a zookeeper dressing in a yellow Pikachu onesie and darting around in front of the glassed-in habitats for bears, jaguars and lions.

“We’ve just been kind of thinking out of the box, doing bizarre things that we normally don’t get to do,” said Kathy Watkins, the zoo’s senior supervisor of carnivores. “The lions, especially, think all that kind of stuff was very entertaining. … They almost go into predator mode, they will hide and kind of stalk, and they’ll chase and they’ll run.”

This new enrichment is just one of the ways that the Houston Zoo has changed operations during what general curator Kevin Hodge said is the longest closure in its history. There’s also a “goat happy hour” a few times throughout the day, where zoo employees gather to pet the goats, while maintaining proper social distance.

“That way the goats get the attention that they want and the people just get a break for a minute to pet a goat,” Hodge said. “There’s just something about petting a dog or a cat or a goat that relieves stress and tension.”

Hodge has helped the zoo persist through historic hurricanes and flooding in his nearly 20-year tenure. But he said he has “never had anything like this before.” In the two months since its closure, the zoo has implemented several new measures to protect employees and animals from the transmission of COVID-19.

“Whenever it first happened, and we’re like, ‘OK, we need to close,’ I don’t think any of us really knew what that meant,” Hodge said. “I didn’t know this was going to be a long-term closure.”

And the animals are getting lonely. Although keepers have implemented new stimulation, Hodge said many of the animals miss the zoo’s crowds, so employees have been the stars of the show during hours of operation. When workers pass by, he said the giraffes come to the fence to observe them. The chimpanzees also walk to their window to check out their “entertainment.”

The clouded leopard cubs have become more curious about passersby during their days in the empty zoo, too. Just nearing 6 months old, Watkins said the cubs only experienced guests very early on in their lives, but as they’ve gotten bigger, they have explored more of their enclosure and are more intrigued by people.

“We definitely see them kind of perk up and look a little bit more around when they hear somebody or see a cart go by,” Watkins said. “I think once we open back up, (the cubs) are going to be really intrigued with watching all the people go by, because it’s just something they really haven’t experienced that much yet in their very short window of kitten life.”

Hodge said the zoo’s first few days being closed were fairly ordinary, save for the lack of guests. As the pandemic progressed, the zoo implemented new precautionary measures to avoid the spread of the virus — including splitting its animal care team into two, which alternate work days to limit the amount of people employees come in contact with, Hodge said. These teams also work longer hours due to the limited staff and extra cleaning, and have increased their use of personal protective equipment and disinfectant.

Once the Bronx Zoo reported that a tiger tested positive for COVID-19, zoo leadership put new precautions in place to prevent any transmission between humans and the animals — specifically for teams working with any cats, primates, otters, binturongs and Texas-native animals. The Houston Zoo has had no cases of the disease in animals or animal team employees, according to Hodge.

The new guidelines include a 6-foot distance requirement between people and animals, disinfecting enclosures and tools every day and mandating gloves and masks in animal areas, Hodge said. Employees also use foot baths and never wear work clothes home, to prevent outside contamination.

The 6-foot requirement has forced the zoo to adapt. Typically, zookeepers use a foot-long stick to feed the big cats — especially for quick treats during training sessions. Now they use the 5-foot sticks typically reserved for training behaviors like jumping.

“Now we seem to be in the routine of things. It’s kind of a different normal right now,” Hodge said. “We’re really starting to look towards our next step, as far as when can we open and when can we bring staff back to working five days a week.”

Although Gov. Greg Abbott released recent guidance on reopening businesses, including museums, specifications regarding zoos were not included. Jackie Wallace, senior director of public relations at the Houston Zoo, said the zoo isn’t yet sure when it will reopen, but that two months without guests is “hurting” the zoo financially.

“We’re waiting for the governor’s Strike Force to tell us which phase we’re in. We were not in phase one, we hope that we are in phase two but … zoos haven’t been mentioned by name yet,” Wallace said. “We’re not ready to announce anything yet. We’re working toward a lot of different dates of what-ifs, we’ve got a task force together, looking at a whole bunch of scenarios that could happen.”

To offset some of the financial strain, the zoo has put together an emergency fund for donations toward daily care, veterinary care and nutrition. The fund is promoted in a slew of videos the zoo has produced for guests to virtually observe elephant baths, alligator feedings and other encounters. So far, the fund has raised more than $200,000 from thousands of donors.

“Every single dollar we receive, it means so much to us … that people care about us to give their hard-earned money, especially at a time like this, to share that with us,” Wallace said. “But it really also matters because … we rely on tickets and memberships and donations for our day-to-day operations.”

When the zoo privatized in 2002, its executive team created a rainy-day fund, which now contains several million dollars. It’s been a big help, Wallace said, but zoo leaders are nervous about what happens when he funds run out.

The zoo has received payment protection funds from the government, which has helped with payroll, Wallace said. And Mayor Sylvester Turner recently proposed using federal COVID-19 funds to finance the city’s $10 million annual contract with the zoo.

“Ticket sales are where a big part of our revenue comes from, and without having the ticket sales and people here, we missed some of our busiest times that we have during the year during spri ng break,” Hodge said. “(It’s) very, very expensive to run the zoo, not only to pay the employees that are here, but also to feed and care for all the animals that we have here. So we’re excited and definitely looking forward to reopening.”

Photos by Karen Warren / Staff photographer Kathy Watkins, the Houston Zoo’s senior supervisor of carnivores, feeds a meatball to Shasta, the cougar, for a midmorning snack. She uses the longer pole to keep proper social distance for the safety of the staff and the animals.

Rhiana, a fossa at the zoo, sports a splatter of goat milk on her face that zookeeper Megan Woodall sprayed near her as a morning treat.

Photos by Karen Warren / Staff photographer Kathy Watkins uses a long training pole to feed fruit to Belle, an American black bear at the Houston Zoo.

Animals at the Houston Zoo, like this baby clouded leopard, seem to be craving attention since the shutdown. Spring is usually a busy time at the zoo.

Watkins uses a portable sprayer to squirt goat milk into the mouth of Berani, a Malayan tiger.