Beardsley Zoo gets festive in a strange year
BRIDGEPORT — Like many businesses around the region, Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo will be closed on Christmas Day. But the holiday is still on the minds of the zoo’s staff and animals, including Wiggles the Chinchilla, who was elected the zoo’s mayor earlier this year.
On Christmas Eve, his fuzzy honor issued a statement to his constituency, wishing them glad tidings.
“Thinking warmly of each of you and wishing your family an extra measure of comfort, joy and hope this Christmas,” his greeting read.
The cheeky but sincere sentiment is part of the zoo’s mission to provide a fun, safe place for Connecticut residents to celebrate and spend time over the winter break, said zoo director Gregg Dancho. Dancho said he knows this hasn’t been a fun year for most people because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the zoo has tried to be as close to business as usual as possible since re-opening earlier this year.
“We are an outside facility where people can socially distance,” he said.
“Our mantra through all of this has been to try and maintain as safe a situation as possible for our staff, animals and guests.”
The zoo has maintained many of its regular holiday programs, including its Winter Wonderland Walk, which includes 10 festive vignettes set up around the zoo, such as Fairy House Lane and the train display, Imagination Station.
“There’s holiday tableaux around the zoo so you can get pictures if you want to memorialize this wonderful year,” Dancho said.
There are even new animals on campus.
Beardsley recently announced the arrival of Tahu, a 1-year old female North American river otter from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Wash., and a new female Mexican gray wolf.
And what would the holidays be without an awkward family reunion?
Earlier in the month, the zoo announced it was welcoming back Changbai, a 13-year-old Amur tiger and the mother of cubs born at the zoo in 2017. One of Changbai’s daughters, Reka, is still at the zoo, and the two are both living in the tiger habitat.