Animals lonely as zoos lock down - 29th May 2020

Animals at the Providence Rhode Island Zoo in the USA are missing their visitors. Zoos in the US closed their doors to visitors on 14th March. Since then the animals are cared for by only a few zookeepers and vets wearing masks.

Zookeeper Lisa Ruggiero talks about how the animals reacted to them wearing masks.

Lisa Ruggiero: They did look at us a little funny, but we still have them on but we've had them on for over a month now so they don't really seem to care, they hear our voice and they know it’s us.

The zoo, founded in 1872 is one of the oldest in the US. It usually has hundreds of visitors a day. The animals are used to children chatting to them and feeding them. But as zookeeper Jennifer Hennessy explains there are a few perks to the lack of visitors.

Jennifer Hennessy: I feel like they are really missing the visitors as well as all the staff. There's some perks for some of the animals, the tortoise gets to walk wherever she wants to go, she is hiding in the bushes over there, but overall we just really miss our public and visitors.