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Noah Wouldn't Have Left Behind the Emus and Pythons
By THOMAS CRAMPTON
Published: September 16, 2004
GULF SHORES, Ala., Sept. 15 - Choosing the animals to leave behind is the hardest part about evacuating a zoo.
"Each time I think about locking that gate this morning, it makes me cry," the director of the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, Patti Hall, said. "I don't know if the animals we left behind will survive and I don't even know if the zoo will be there at all."
More than 250 animals from the 15-year-old zoo were removed Wednesday from Gulf Shore. Despite all the efforts, which included using 12 sport utility vehicles, a borrowed repair truck, two 18-wheelers and a livestock trailer, 30 animals remained behind as the police barred access to the low-lying island.
The animals left include waterfowl, 3 emus and all the zoo's reptiles, including 8 Burmese pythons, an anaconda and more than 12 Colombian red-tail boas.
"They are in the strongest buildings we have at the zoo,'' Ms. Hall said. "So there should be no danger at all to the public. I'm not saying a flood couldn't wash the buildings away. But they are nearly bunkers."
The removed animals are in a makeshift zoo on wheels , with monkeys filling the repair truck and cages of carnivores the 18-wheeler, a few miles inland from the zoo and well within the mandatory evacuation area.
"I sometimes think Noah had it easy compared to this," Ms. Hall said as she walked down the row of vehicles parked parallel to the gusting winds. "We have not slept more than three hours for four days to do this move."
The lone casualty so far has been Ms. Hall's left index finger, which Kunda, a Capuchin monkey, bit.
The kitchen in a house near the vehicles is an overflow room for extra monkeys, and two 4-month-old tiger cubs, Rajah and Rani, roam around an indoor swimming pool.
The evacuation began with moving out the yaks, continued with tranquilizing the eight large cats and finished with caging the birds.
"Frightened bird calls panic the other animals,'' Ms. Hall said. "So you do them last. It is really hard for all the animals to leave the zoo, because it is the only world they know."
Though the final parts of the move were carried out in haste under high winds, Ms. Hall said, it had been carefully prepared. Each animal has individually prepared containers of food for up to six days, and one of the 10 keepers will be with the animals 24 hours a day.
To guard against an escape, a staff member will point a loaded pistol into the carnivore trailer each time the door is opened.
"You cannot tranquilize a lion once it gets too excited," Ms. Hall said. "You have to kill it."
By THOMAS CRAMPTON
Published: September 16, 2004
GULF SHORES, Ala., Sept. 15 - Choosing the animals to leave behind is the hardest part about evacuating a zoo.
"Each time I think about locking that gate this morning, it makes me cry," the director of the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, Patti Hall, said. "I don't know if the animals we left behind will survive and I don't even know if the zoo will be there at all."
More than 250 animals from the 15-year-old zoo were removed Wednesday from Gulf Shore. Despite all the efforts, which included using 12 sport utility vehicles, a borrowed repair truck, two 18-wheelers and a livestock trailer, 30 animals remained behind as the police barred access to the low-lying island.
The animals left include waterfowl, 3 emus and all the zoo's reptiles, including 8 Burmese pythons, an anaconda and more than 12 Colombian red-tail boas.
"They are in the strongest buildings we have at the zoo,'' Ms. Hall said. "So there should be no danger at all to the public. I'm not saying a flood couldn't wash the buildings away. But they are nearly bunkers."
The removed animals are in a makeshift zoo on wheels , with monkeys filling the repair truck and cages of carnivores the 18-wheeler, a few miles inland from the zoo and well within the mandatory evacuation area.
"I sometimes think Noah had it easy compared to this," Ms. Hall said as she walked down the row of vehicles parked parallel to the gusting winds. "We have not slept more than three hours for four days to do this move."
The lone casualty so far has been Ms. Hall's left index finger, which Kunda, a Capuchin monkey, bit.
The kitchen in a house near the vehicles is an overflow room for extra monkeys, and two 4-month-old tiger cubs, Rajah and Rani, roam around an indoor swimming pool.
The evacuation began with moving out the yaks, continued with tranquilizing the eight large cats and finished with caging the birds.
"Frightened bird calls panic the other animals,'' Ms. Hall said. "So you do them last. It is really hard for all the animals to leave the zoo, because it is the only world they know."
Though the final parts of the move were carried out in haste under high winds, Ms. Hall said, it had been carefully prepared. Each animal has individually prepared containers of food for up to six days, and one of the 10 keepers will be with the animals 24 hours a day.
To guard against an escape, a staff member will point a loaded pistol into the carnivore trailer each time the door is opened.
"You cannot tranquilize a lion once it gets too excited," Ms. Hall said. "You have to kill it."
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