When lightning strikes, the plan is clear: get the giraffes out of sight. The tall, sleek, water-filled mammals can become dangerous conductors of electricity and are top of mind for zoo staff when severe weather arrives at their facilities. Giraffes, along with every other animal at the Pittsburgh and Erie zoos, are assigned a special location for emergency situations, including storms, snow and fire.
As hurricane season continues in the U.S., zoos and aquariums must often relocate or evacuate the animals. While Pittsburgh and Erie don’t experience hurricanes, they still have to be prepared for anything. Staff and animals routinely run through emergency drills, should such a situation occur.
“We have been susceptible to heavy thunderstorms, strong winds, and also sometimes even in the winter, we have snow conditions that can really hamper our operations and be potentially dangerous,” said Allan Marshall, vice president of internal relations at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium. “You can never predict what's coming around the corner next. So we say, ‘Yeah, yeah, we’ve got this.’ And then something completely out of the blue will happen.”
Most recently, this out-of-the-blue situation was a tornado, which hit the zoo’s Highland Park campus in May. When this takes place, staff are trained to take animals on display to their inside enclosure. The animals, Marshall said, are already familiar with the inside space, since they often spend the night there anyway. Typically the animals will enter the enclosure willingly, but Marshall said for more dangerous animals, or “code red” animals (like tigers or lions), they’ll do what’s called a “recall.”
“It’s not like you can go, ‘Here, kitty, kitty, come on in,’” Marshall said. “We have a cue for them. That’s a really nice big reward. And as soon as they hear that cue, they’re like, ‘I’m going in.’”
The cue could be a whistle or special tone from the caretaker — and the reward could be a big piece of meat or a bone.
The Pittsburgh Zoo recently regained a “gold standard” accreditation from the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, which requires a certain level of health and safety inspections, including that the facility must have such emergency plans in place. Marshall said staff will go through the “live” drills with the animals, but also take part in what he called a “tabletop experience.”
“We get everybody in a room and we literally do it like a board game. We say, ‘Okay, there’s a storm coming in 30 minutes.’ And then we roll a die to see what happens next. People have to react in real time on paper,” Marshall said.
Next month, he said, the zoo will do a drill on a dive emergency, where a diver is trapped underwater and staff has to react appropriately.
Because of its hillside location and Pittsburgh’s unique topography, Marshall said flooding is a fairly frequent occurrence at the zoo. In the winter, of course, snow is also a major issue — a major concern up at the Erie Zoo, according to president and CEO Roo Kojancie.
“We get lake effect snow storms, hail, flooding, the occasional windstorm,” Kojancie said. “Even though we’re pretty far north, we do the occasional tornado watch that comes through.”
At the Erie Zoo, Kojancie said exhibit design is crucial to keeping the animals safe in any potential situation. Are there old trees nearby that could fall into an enclosure? Can snow plows get to every part of the facility?
“We routinely test our backup generators, our heating and cooling systems, we monitor the health of our trees,” Kojancie said.
She estimates that Erie Zoo staff conducts about four “live action” drills per year, and also takes part in the tabletop scenario training.
Both Erie and Pittsburgh Zoos are part of a larger network that are able to take in animals being evacuated from other facilities experiencing severe weather or other emergencies. They haven’t been contacted about the hurricanes in the southern United States, but said they could help if needed. In the past, Marshall said Pittsburgh Zoo staff traveled to a zoo in Louisiana after a hurricane to help clean up fallen trees, fix enclosures and general recovery efforts.
“It’s quid pro quo,” Marshall said. “God forbid we’re in a situation [like that], but we know we have a community and zoos and aquariums that can step up and help us if we ever need that help.”
