There’s a sense of excitement in the air as the clock ticks round to 10am.
Holly, Brambles, Widget, Porticus, Ellie, Hick and Bumpkin – London Zoo’s adorable pygmy goats – instinctively know the time and rush to the gate of their petting enclosure, to wait expectantly.
Normally, excited visitors would suddenly appear, all vying to pat the pint-sized herd. But today, like every day since the zoo closed its doors on March 21, no one arrives.
‘Our seven pygmy goats love the attention they get from our visitors,’ says keeper Poppy Tooth. ‘They wait patiently every day by their gate for our visitors, but we all know they aren’t going to turn up.’
Three weeks on, it’s clear that many of the animals in Regent’s Park’s famous zoo enclosures are missing human company. They include one of our closest relatives, the critically endangered Western Lowland gorilla.
‘Primates love people watching as much as their human cousins do,’ says primate team leader Dan Simmonds.
Normally, excited visitors would suddenly appear, all vying to pat the pint-sized herd of pygmy goats. But today, like every day since the zoo closed its doors on March 21, no one arrives
Three weeks on, it’s clear that many of the animals in Regent’s Park’s famous zoo enclosures are missing human company – like the critically endangered Western Lowland gorilla
‘Our gorillas particularly enjoy investigating people’s different clothes and hairstyles – they’ll regularly go over to check out a brightly coloured outfit or hat. And they particularly love babies and will come as close as possible to peer into a pram – almost as if they’re cooing over the youngsters.’
London Zoo is home to gorilla mums Effie and Mjukuu and their little ones Alika, six, and Gernot, five, who, Dan says, are really missing the daily bustle of normal zoo life.
‘They can definitely tell when it’s time to open the doors on a normal day,’ says Dan.
‘The last half hour before we open is usually a hive of activity – zoo keepers cleaning windows, the grounds team sweeping pathways, everyone making final preparations for our visitors. But now these activities are being much more spread out throughout the day.
‘Our Asiatic lions and our Sumatran tiger like to watch what’s going on from high vantage points in their homes, keeping an eye on their territories,’ says senior keeper Tara Humphrey
London Zoo’s pygmy goats are counted during the zoo’s annual stocktake (pictured)
‘They’re all watching us very closely to try to figure out what’s going on. I’ve seen them climb to the very tops of their outdoor climbing frame to get a good high vantage point to survey the zoo from – they’re definitely intrigued about where our visitors are.’
With around 1.25million people visiting each year, the site is usually bustling and the air filled with the shouts of excited children.
Today, they’ve been replaced by an eerie calm.
Apart from every Christmas Day, it’s the first time the zoo – set up in 1826 – has closed its doors to the public since The Blitz.
Its famous 35-acre site houses 600 different species, and costs around £75million a year to run – the vast majority of which comes from the entry fees no longer being paid.
People watching giraffes from outside London Zoo as the coronavirus disease spreads
Hardworking zookeepers tend to the zoo’s many animals, including the camels (pictured)
‘It is tough,’ says chief operating officer Kathryn England.
‘As a charity, we are totally reliant on public support so when we don’t have people coming through the gates we lose that income.
‘We have 18,000 animals and to feed them on a daily basis requires a lot of money. They all have particular diets and different enrichment needs and we have to keep ensuring we pay our dedicated team of keepers. We also need vets and all our essential works on site.
‘We hold a huge fundraising gala every May which raises hundreds of thousands of pounds but we’ve had to cancel it and that hurts us.
‘We are asking people to support us financially anyway and donate online.
‘Uppermost in our minds is making sure our keepers and animals remain fit and well. That’s our priority but we need support to enable that to continue.’
However, she adds: ‘The team are keeping optimistic, the last thing they want to do is make the animals feel even more anxious. Life goes on with all the keepers in terms of their day-to-day routines but it’s just really quiet.
‘The park itself is much quieter too and the noises of nature are more heightened which makes it more powerful – you can hear the lions roaring and the noise of birds and our primate calls are much clearer.’
London Zoo has around 100 keepers.
They’ve been split into two shifts so if one set becomes ill, the other can take over. There are also around 20 support staff per team and vets on hand daily.
People watching giraffes from outside London Zoo as the coronavirus disease spreads
London Zoo’s red river hogs mind their own business during the coronavirus lockdown
‘We’ve got staff going through isolation in the same proportions as the general public,’ says Kathryn. ‘The ones who are working are practising social distancing and using protective equipment like masks and gloves.
‘Some have gone one step further and are voluntarily living in what used to be our ZSL London Zoo Lodges – cabins with bathrooms attached to them – so they stay on site with the animals, all for no extra pay.’
The keepers are faced with the challenge of trying to give the animals interesting things to do now there are no humans to keep them entertained.
Gorilla Keeper Dan says: ‘We’ve started to see a few wild ducks visiting the zoo instead of people, so our gorillas Alika and Gernot have been having fun chasing them – they never catch them, of course. We’re using this time thinking up creative extra activities for the primates – just like parents around the country, whose children are off school.
‘We’ve made “snowballs” for the gorillas – balls of nuts and seeds that we throw into Gorilla Kingdom for the troop to play with and then eat.
London Zoo has some mongoose babies that no one has seen yet due to the lockdown
We’ve been target training with our Hanuman langur monkeys Rex, Saffron, Kamala and Lucy, and have been making puzzle boxes for our 18 squirrel monkeys; boxes filled with snacks that they have to figure out a way into.’
Over at the squirrel monkey enclosure, they are also missing their visitors.
Life normally consists of these cheeky little animals showing off and performing incredible acrobatics on their ropes and wooden frames to mesmerised visitors, so staff are being encouraged to pop along so normality can continue for them.
Jimmy and Yoda, the Northern white-cheeked gibbons, are particularly bereft.
‘Jimmy follows people as they walk around his enclosure, swinging from branch to branch glancing back all the time to check they’re keeping up,’ says Dan.
‘He even plays hide and seek with people – once you catch his eye, he’ll jump to another area of his home and peek from behind a branch and if you don’t chase him he comes back to try to encourage you to join in.
‘He has been singing every morning, and with the city so quiet this beautiful sound can be heard clear across Regent’s Park in London.
Jimmy and Yoda, the Northern white-cheeked gibbons, are particularly bereft of attention
‘We’ve spotted a few people out on their daily hour of exercise looking at him and his son Yoda over the zoo’s perimeter fence as they jog past. He’s cottoned on to the attention and shows off his powerful swing from afar.’
As well as trying to find enriching activities for their charges, the keepers are also making sure the animals receive the right diet.
Because they’re not receiving all the vegetables they normally would as some specialist foods come from abroad, the zoo is consulting with nutritionists to find suitable replacements.
Staff are also continuing to carry on vital behind the scenes work.
The Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which runs Regent’s Park zoo, is part of a number of global and European breeding programmes for threatened species, including Asiatic lions and Sumatran tigers.
And the zoo has been researching zoonotic diseases – those, like corona, which can be transmitted from animals to people – for years.
‘The pandemic is a huge challenge for ZSL,’ says director general Dominic Jermey.
‘For the first time since World War II we have had to close ZSL London and Whipsnade Zoos to visitors, cutting off our biggest source of income and threatening the future of our fieldwork.
‘But where possible our work goes on and has never been more important. Covid-19, which most likely originated in a species of bat, is a clear example of the links between human and wildlife health. Only by understanding diseases in wild animals and how they interact with people, can we hope to identify the risk factors for spill-over and prevent something like this happening again.
‘But we cannot do it alone. Longterm, significant investment in preventative wildlife health research, such as ZSL has carried out over many years, must be prioritised.’
A closed until further notice sign at ZSL London Zoo, in Regent’s Park, London
People stop exercising to look at the giraffes in London Zoo during the coronavirus lockdown
Of course, while keepers and animals alike are mourning the loss of visitors, not all of London Zoo’s residents care that humans aren’t thronging through the doors anymore. Leaf cutter ants, for example, barely notice us when we are around.
But the big cats do.
‘Our Asiatic lions Bhanu, Heidi, Indi and Rubi and our Sumatran tiger Asim like to watch what’s going on from high vantage points in their homes, keeping an eye on their territories,’ says senior keeper Tara Humphrey.
‘We often spot them sniffing the air when people walk past – checking out the different scents. But without visitors, the big cats are pretty non-plussed. The lions have been playing with giant scented balls and keepers have been making sure Asim is busy with fun activities too.
‘We’ve been hanging his breakfast from tough bungee cords, which keeps him busy using his strong muscles to pull at his “prey”.’
The dwarf mongooses, just eight inches tall, also love interacting with the public.
‘They’re always popping out from their indoor dens to see if the visitors are around,’ says Tara.
‘Despite being a small species, they are very confident animals with a lot of personality. Sometimes they’ll bask in the sun watching our younger visitors – children who might remember special moments like that for the rest of their lives.
Jabba the African bullfrog hasn’t been visited for a while, owing to the coronavirus lockdown
‘But we’re quite lucky at the moment as our female, Norma, recently gave birth to four pups so they have their little paws full looking after the new arrivals! With such young members in the group all the other adults and older siblings will take turns looking after the pups, allowing mum Norma to rest, feed and generally have time with the others in the group too – just like any other mum with a family support network.’
Despite the distraction of gorgeous babies, the adult male, Guled, is missing the public so the keepers have increased the time they spend with him.
‘Guled really enjoys his one-to-one training,’ says Tara. ‘He’s very responsive to his target training, which is where we hold out a target – such as a ball on a stick – and encourage him to come over and touch it in order to receive a treat.’
Back at the pygmy goat enclosure, keeper Poppy and her team are standing in for visitors and have decided to set up a ‘patting’ rota for Holly and the other goats.
It’s tough, the keepers say, because the animals clearly don’t understand why the lockdown has happened, although the zoo are keen to stress that the animals are fit and well. But there can be no doubt they will be pleased to see visitors return.