Closing time? Hattie Garlick reports on the crisis currently facing British zoos

Forced to shut their gates last March, zoos are running out of cash: six have closed for good, with more expected to follow in the next 12months.evenastheyprepare to reopen next week, it’s feared the financial damage has already been done – and it’s the animals, particularly some of the world’s most endangered, that are likely to suffer most. Hattie Garlick reports

The meerkats Mosegi and Kimbia are one of the most popular species with the children, so they definitely noticed when we closed and the zoo became quiet,’ says Jamie Baker, zookeeper at Battersea Park Children’s Zoo. ‘The otters, too. Usually, we open at 10 o’clock. They get fed shortly after, so they run to the front of their enclosure and look for people coming towards them. Over time, they realised no one was coming, so they stopped bothering. The donkeys and pigs were all waiting at the gate in the morning, because people would usually come past and pat them on the head. Our African grey parrots, Barry and Becky, are our oldest animals – they’re 22 years old – and chatting to visitors is something they’ve enjoyed all their lives. Usually, they don’t shut up… they don’t speak at all now. We think they miss that interaction, so we go and play them music, just so they’re hearing some hustle and bustle.’

The 70-year-old zoo, in the middle of London’s Battersea Park, usually welcomes 8,500 schoolchildren a year to see its 47 species of mammals, birds and reptiles. Its education programme is fully booked year-round, with up to 90 kids taking tours and workshops in a single day.

However, due to Covid restrictions, the zoo has been open for less than half of the past year. Baker finds himself ‘walking around a ghost town – only two or three keepers come in on any given day’. Before Christmas, they welcomed four Asian short-clawed otter cubs into the world. Quadruplets are a rare occurrence for this species, classed as threatened in the wild, so Baker is itching to show them to visiting children. ‘It’s a unique experience, being in front of a living, breathing baby otter,’ he says. ‘Once you’ve connected to them that way, you’re more likely to contribute towards protecting them.’

So far, however, the only humans the cubs have seen are their keepers, who named them Tia, Bubble, Rishi and Witty, acknowledging the uncertain times into which they were born. ‘I’m not sure how much I’ll enjoy those names in the future,’ says Baker, ‘but their birth has been great. We haven’t had much other good news this year.’

If the absence of visitors has been strange for some zoo animals, it has been extremely stressful for staff. It costs £25,000 a month to keep the zoo running (payroll excluded). Like the majority of the UK’S 300-plus licensed zoos, that money would usually come from ticket sales. Battersea Park Children’s Zoo’s resources are dwindling.

Recognising this potential crisis for the sector, the UK Government announced the Zoo Animals Fund last June, making £100 million available in grants of up to £730,000 for those zoos and aquariums facing severe financial difficulties as a result of the virus.

Despite this, six UK zoos have closed permanently during the pandemic, while the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) warns that 24 others face the same fate within 12 months. However, more – from our biggest, such as Colchester and London Zoos, to our smallest like Battersea – are now appealing for public donations to help them weather the storm. The UK’S zoos are critically ill, yet the Government’s medicine does not appear to be working: of the fund’s £100 million, more than £90 million so far remains unspent. What is going wrong?

According to Ed Heap, Battersea Park Children’s Zoo’s general manager, the fund ‘isn’t fit for purpose’. Zoos qualify only if they have 12 weeks or less in financial reserves remaining, a condition that, says Heap, renders it inaccessible to the majority of zoo operators, who by that stage would already have needed to have begun the difficult, time-consuming process of winding down their business and finding new homes for their animals. ‘We have a duty of care to every animal that comes into our collection,’ he says. ‘A primate lives for 50 years. I hold that responsibility for half a century.’

Unable to access the fund, the zoo has taken stringent measures. ‘It’s had a huge impact,’ Heap says. ‘I’ve taken loans and had some very sleepless nights. We’re a partnership, not a limited company, so when you take loans out, your houses are at risk. Every single ounce of fat was cut. My animal-feed guy said, “Stop paying me – I can ride this at the moment.” I owed him a lot of money.’

Public donations helped. Last May, a crowdfunder campaign raised almost £20,000 – enough to pay for three months of animal feed. A second, still live, has so far made over £10,000; and, according to the latest roadmap, zoos hope to reopen this week. However, they have lost the financial banker of Easter. Battersea typically makes around 30 per cent of its profits over the Easter holidays. A second consecutive Easter weekend without visitors

worries Heap: ‘We need more funding. I just want to be able to sleep well in September, knowing that we’re OK for the winter.’

A Defra spokesperson said: ‘We understand the challenges zoos and aquariums have been facing due to the pandemic, which is why we set up the Zoo Animals Fund. The fund is a safety net, in addition to the other Government support available, to ensure that animals can continue to be cared for in the event that a zoo enters severe financial difficulties. We have now extended the fund for a further three months until the end of June and we would encourage zoos and aquariums in need and eligible for funding to apply.’

However, Matyas Liptovszky, honorary assistant professor of zoo animal medicine at the University of Nottingham, says, ‘UK zoos are at a genuine crisis point.’ As cause, he

‘I’ve taken out loans to keep the zoo going and had very sleepless nights’

points to their high fixed costs (you cannot furlough animals or those caring for them) and, when they reopen, the caps on visitor numbers to ensure social distancing. Plus: ‘In other countries – US, Australia and around Europe, for example – you’ll find some zoos with either central or local government funding, but in the UK, that was phased out a couple of decades ago. They were left to their own devices. No visitors – no funding.’

Yet, he says, ‘The UK zoo community has a very significant contribution to field conservation around the world, both financial and in terms of expertise.’

Zoos, their defenders argue, engage in vital research that contributes to the preservation of wild species and habitats far beyond their gates. They create ‘back-up’ populations of species threatened with extinction in the wild, while also contributing to field conservation projects. Indeed, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, of which many of the big UK zoos are members, claims to be the third-largest contributor to conservation in the world, with its members spending nearly $350 million annually on programmes in the wild.

An energetic centenarian tortoise called Diego was last year hailed as the saviour of his entire species. When he was shipped from San Diego Zoo to the Galápagos Islands as part of a breeding programme in the 1970s, only two males and 12 females of his Española Island subspecies were left in the wild, leaving them perilously close to extinction. Today, their population tops 2,000, with Diego’s industrious work believed to be responsible for at least 40 per cent of that number. In the UK, meanwhile, a new report suggests that 20 native species – including beavers and the white stork – would face decline or even extinction were it not for their conservation in zoos and aquariums.

Yet, while other countries, such as Australia, developed funds to support these conservation efforts during the pandemic, the UK’S fund is only designed explicitly to ensure the welfare of zoo animals in the event of financial difficulty. So far, says Liptovszky, struggling zoos are managing to maintain welfare standards on site, ‘But education, conservation, research? You can park those projects. That’s where I fear that UK

zoos are in a really tricky situation.’

The only other time in history we’d closed for anything other than Christmas Day was during the Second World War. That was only for 12 days. To find ourselves closed for longer… Well, that was really scary,’ says Kathryn England, chief operating officer at ZSL London Zoo.

It costs £1 million a month just to feed and care for the zoo’s 20,000 animals. Seventy per cent of its income last year came from visitors and members, in the form of admissions, Gift Aid, merchandising, catering and more. ‘We have been reliant on our supporters and the public just to make that basic million a month, let alone being able to make money to do all our conservation work,’ says England.

‘ZSL will be 200 in 2028 and there was a real fear, in the first lockdown, about whether we were going to make it to that anniversary.’ A year on, and unable to access the Government’s fund, the zoo finds itself in a ‘really serious’ situation.

Caring for some animals has been a harder and lonelier task in lockdown. The zoo relies on teams of highly specialist keepers, working together to care for its species. Afraid that one case of coronavirus could leave the zoo without anyone capable of caring for the gorillas or tigers, these teams were split, leaving keepers doing complex and often physically exhausting work alone.

A pregnant okapi called Oni presented another challenge. Found only in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, okapi are classified as endangered, with their survival threatened by habitat loss and hunting. So, the success of Oni’s pregnancy was of paramount importance for staff.

With social distancing and travel restrictions in place, zookeepers and vets had to plan her care over Microsoft Teams. Staff had to be trained via Facetime to manoeuvre Oni into the correct position for vital ultrasound scans, all while wearing PPE, feeding Oni brown bread (her strongest pregnancy craving) and staying the requisite two metres apart – coincidentally and mercifully, roughly the length of an okapi. Oni went into labour on 20 September, with keepers maintaining an anxious 12-hour vigil over CCTV. A healthy calf – all giant ears and wobbly legs – was born the following morning and named Ede.

Conservation has proved just as – if not more – challenging than animal care. ZSL London Zoo’s science and conservation programme costs an additional £1.3 million a month. The zoo manages the international breeding programme for the critically endangered Sumatran tiger and estimates that there may now be only 300 individual tigers remaining in the wild, clinging to survival in patches of forest on the island of Sumatra.

The programme is a complex endeavour requiring heavy investment. Software tracks the genetic variance of all animals. Specific individuals are then selected to breed and be transported between zoos around the world to ensure the healthiest possible back-up population for a wild community.

ZSL London Zoo’s chief curator, Malcolm Fitzpatrick, says the pandemic’s impact on such programmes will last long after zoos reopen next week. ‘There will be implications for a fair few years. Zoos have had to limit some of the resources made available to these conservation breeding programmes; some have had to pull back from building new enclosures. Any access we could have to that Government funding would help.’

If such programmes were forced to close, he suggests, it’s possible that the Sumatran tiger and other critically endangered species

will be lost for ever: ‘Without these vital programmes, the world would have already lost, among others, the Arabian oryx, Przewalski’s horse, California condor and the Partula snail – all species saved by the collaborative efforts of zoos and their conservation partners.’

Not everyone, however, agrees that zoos are vital to the international conservation effort. ‘Zoos are outdated, cruel and should be phased out over the next 25 to 30 years,’ says Damian Aspinall. As chair of the Aspinall Foundation, he is responsible for two UK animal parks, Howletts Wild Animal Park and Port Lympne. Reserves and safari parks are considered by some to turn the zoo dynamic on its head – with animals given greater room to roam, and visitors confined to paths or even cars. Says Aspinall, ‘I will always try my absolute hardest to find all animals homes in their native habitats, as this is my core belief.’

The argument that zoos and animal parks should be retired on ethical grounds is a longstanding one, far predating the pandemic that now imperils their futures. Yet, says Aspinall, ‘The pandemic has not only caused immeasurable problems but also exposed fundamental flaws in many zoo establishments that operate around the UK.’

In June, the chief executive of Twycross Zoo suggested that mass culls were a conceivable prospect, after the Leicestershire venue failed to access the Zoo Animal Fund. BIAZA is not aware of any euthanasia having taken place a result of the pandemic. Aspinall says the threat illustrates his longstanding view that zoos ‘do not satisfy the criteria they use to justify their presence, that of being for the purposes of conservation, education and research’.

Should zoos be allowed to expire, then? ‘PETA hopes the pandemic will cause zoos to reflect and acknowledge that the public’s position on zoos is changing. Ethically and financially, they are redundant in society,’ says the animal charity’s senior media officer Jennifer White. Before any further financial aid is extended, she adds, ‘they should make a pledge that they’re not going to breed any more animals into captivity. It’s completely unsustainable to be asking for money to look after the animals you currently have, yet still be breeding more.’ In the long term, PETA believes all zoos and wildlife parks should be phased out, with only animal sanctuaries remaining.

White makes the point that most endangered animals bred in zoos are never released into the wild, but live out their lives in captivity. ‘You’d never take children to a prison to show them how human society functions… Children can sit down and watch a David Attenborough documentary now. They can learn about animals in so many amazing ways.’

Viewing figures support this. Yet, in June, Attenborough himself backed London Zoo’s ongoing pandemic fundraising appeal. ‘No television programme can replace the actual reality of standing close to an elephant,’ he said. ‘London was the first scientific zoo in the world… and has been at the forefront of technology and advances ever since then. If this country can’t support it, it would be a scandal.’

Andy Hall, BIAZA’S spokesperson, agrees: ‘Zoo visitor numbers were increasing pre-pandemic and during the pandemic we have seen thousands of people rally behind them – people want to see zoos succeed.’

If zoos are not able to release endangered species into the wild, it is, he says, ‘because the reason they’re becoming extinct in the wild needs to be addressed before reintroduction takes place. We are in an extinction crisis. Zoos aren’t winning the fight against extinction. Neither are any other conservation organisations.’

Shaun Foggett, owner and founder of the Crocodiles of the World in Oxfordshire, is a firm believer in the role of zoos in helping conservation. His small zoo turns 10 this month. Celebrations, however, are dampened by anxiety.

‘This is my life’s work,’ says Foggett. As a child, he was fascinated by crocodiles. A brush with death in his 20s persuaded him to take the plunge and set up the UK’S only crocodile zoo. ‘The only asset I had was a house, so I sold it and poured the money into setting up,’ he says. ‘For so many years, I thought I was the only person who loved crocodiles and their conservation to this extent, but the park has shown me that there are hundreds of thousands in the UK who do, too. Visitor numbers were rising every year.’

Then came the pandemic. Foggett was unable to access the Zoo Animal

‘The pandemic has exposed fundamental flaws in many zoo establishments in the UK’

Fund. ‘We’ve set up crowdfunding pages. Our supporters are raising money in all sorts of fantastic ways – cutting their hair off, doing sponsored rides – every penny helps. Elderly people have posted cheques of £10 or £5. It feels like there’s more effort from the general public than from the Government.’

Like London Zoo and BIAZA, Foggett is calling for the Government to use the unspent money from the Zoo Animals Fund in order to create a more accessible Zoo Recovery Fund, aimed at supporting zoos as they rebuild in the longer term.

With no such fund in sight, however, Foggett has had to begin drawing up a contingency plan for his crocodiles. ‘It’s very difficult because we’ve got such a specialised collection. The majority can’t go to UK zoos – they don’t have the facilities to take care of them correctly… We’ve started making contact with zoos across Europe and further afield. I have to think about it – they’re my responsibility – but I almost can’t bear to. It’s heartbreaking. I have to believe I can make this work somehow.’

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