Checking In With Our Animal Friends 🐼
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Episode 107 Description
🐒 Time to check in with our animal friends. 💉 Did you know that there is a COVID vaccine for animals? Hear about the baby boom happening around the world's zoos. 🍼 Learn about the fun adventures that happened at the Denver Zoo during the pandemic. 🐠 And how do you keep garden eels happy? Find out in today’s Trivia on the Ten! 🧐
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TRANSCRIPT:
Various Voices 0:00
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Bethany Van Delft 00:07
I'm Bethany Van Delft. It's July 10. And this is no ordinary episode of The Ten News. This is The Ten News Gets Extra. The pandemic didn't just have us humans on lockdown. zoo animals of the world have also been quarantining. Today, zoos around the country open their doors, we're here to give you an animal update. Let's dive in.
Bethany Van Delft 00:39
Throughout the pandemic, most of the world's zoos closed down to keep visitors staff and of course the animal safe. That's because some animals can contract the virus. There have been confirmed cases of gorillas, tigers, and even domestic cats and dogs who have gotten COVID. But now that vaccines are really rolling out across the country, some animals are finally getting their shot. The Oakland Zoo in the San Francisco Bay area started inoculating its big cats, bears, and ferrets last week. While none of the zoo’s creatures have gotten the virus so far, the staff say they’re giving the shots just to be safe. The animal vaccine is formulated especially for animals and it's still in an experimental state. And the zoo animals have to get two doses--just like some of us!
The creature quarantine has also brought a baby boom! [awww sound effect] Zoos around the world reported there were more babies born than they expected. Like at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. a roly poly panda baby was born right after lockdown--even though the zoo staff thought his mom was too old to conceive! His name? Xiao Qi Ji -- which translates to “little miracle.” And without any people around, Sri Lanka’s 4,000 zoo animals were way less stressed. Some animals who had never been parents before had bouncing babies. Among the newborns this year are three lion cubs, a black swan, and a scimitar-horned oryx--an animal that’s almost extinct in the wild.
So as zoos start to open back up, visitors will have plenty of new animals to go gaga for!
Bethany Van Delft 02:38
So without any visitors, what are the animals been up to lately? Our correspondent Anya Schultz goes behind the scenes at the Denver Zoo in Colorado to see what their cool creatures have been doing when we're not watching.
Anya Schultz 02:55
There are over 3000 animals at the Denver Zoo! Normally the place is packed with visitors who come to see the lions and tigers and elephants. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the zoo didn’t let anyone visit for about three months. Emily Insalaco is one of the people in charge of the Denver Zoo. She said some of the animals really missed seeing people. Especially one very friendly giraffe named Dobby.
Emily Insalaco 03:24
Doby our giraffe, he spent one morning overseeing all of the worker horticulture department did so he stood right at the edge and watched I think he was supervising making sure they were doing it correctly.
Anya Schultz 03:34
Emily said another animal that loves people is Vinh. She's a Gibbon which is a type of ape that lives in the forests of Southeast Asia.
Emily Insalaco 03:43
Another one of our animals that loves our guests is Vinh. She is one of our Givens that lives out over the islands in our Toyota elephant passage because of it. And she is always watching for guests. And when we were quiet that was another animal that whenever she thought anybody should kind of come out and and watch what they were doing.
Anya Schultz 04:05
Some animals used the quiet time at the zoo to discover new places to explore.
Emily Insalaco 04:11
We had a tiger that was a little on the shyer side. And when the zoo closed down, he started exploring his exhibit in different ways and started exploring this overhead ramp that he really hadn't used before. And then he's continued to use that ramp now that we've been open to people. So I think it gave him just that little bit of confidence to try something new while the zoo was a little quieter.
Anya Schultz 04:33
Emily said when the zoo was closed, some lucky animals got to explore the space. She said zookeepers took flocks of flamingos on walks around the property. That makes me wonder, what does zookeeper actually do for their job?
Emily Insalaco 04:47
The zoo keepers are kind of the superheroes. They're the ones that are out there every day. They come in early in the morning and they check on their animals and they give their animals medication if they need that and they make diets for the animals and they train the animals and they clean up the exhibits and set up new things for the animals to check out throughout the day and they get out there and they talk to our guests so they could do all of the really fun things.
Anya Schultz 05:10
The Denver Zoo is now open, but they've made some big changes to stay safe. Everyone wears a mask. And when you visit, you can only walk through in one direction. No more running back to get one last look at the zebras. Emily said for now. If you can't visit your local zoo safely, you can go on a virtual Safari. Just check out the Denver Zoo on YouTube for some behind the scenes animal action.
Bethany Van Delft 05:39
Hey, grownups. Are you in the family enjoying TheTen News? If so, could you please do us a big, big favor? All you have to do is go to Apple podcasts and give us a rating and a review. Hopefully five stars but no pressure. You don't even have to stop listening. You could do it right now. Don't worry. Oh, wait. Just kidding. Take your time. Do it though. It may not seem like a big deal, but it really helps other listeners find The Ten News so our community can grow. Thanks again for listening. We really appreciate it.
Bethany Van Delft 06:17
Up next. Okay, it's time for.. [SFX:What? What's the big idea? Trivia on the Ten.]
Bethany Van Delft 06:25
While some animals were happy to have the alone time, others were missing human faces. One aquarium in Japan asked the public to do what to keep their garden eels happy? Was it A) knit them little sweaters, B) video chat with them or C) write them letters?
Bethany Van Delft 06:51
Did you guess it? The answer is … B … video chat with them! And you thought your mom got lonely when you didn’t call! When Toyko's Sumida Aquarium closed down last March, the staff started to worry that their 300 garden eels were forgetting what humans looked like. That’s because they started hiding from their keepers! The shy eels had gotten used to seeing hundreds of human faces peering at them every day. Even though in the wild, this would be an important skill, in captivity, a hiding eel can’t get a regular health check up! So the aquarium set up a handful of tablets and put on a “face-showing festival” where people could FaceTime the little eels to say hi.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I need to call my mom, my brother, my aunt … and maybe 300 garden eels!
Bethany Van Delft 07:52
Times up! Thanks for listening to The Ten News! Look out for new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays.
“The Ten News” is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts, and is distributed by, iHeart Radio.
The Ten News creative team is FaceTiming their moms and includes Kate Hale, Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Andrew Hall, Jenner Pascua, and Sarah Olender. Anya Scultz contributed to this episode.
Our Production Director is Jeremiah Tittle, and our Executive Producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan.
I’m Bethany Van Delft and thanks for listening to The Ten News.
Bethany Van Delft 08:36
Thanks for that report Anya, I'm curious to the zookeepers stay at the zoo with the animals during the shelter in place. I wonder how many monkeys that love jumping on the bed.
