There are periods when we often hear people talk about how much fun it must be to work at the zoo with all the animals, but this time of year, we don’t hear it as often. Coming off a week of extreme cold weather, I couldn’t be prouder of the zookeeper staff.

Over the weekend staff arrived with the “feels like” temperature around negative forty-nine degrees and spent their days ensuring that each of their animals were cared for and had all they needed to get through the days safely. Though dressed for the weather, working outside in this weather can be brutal and it does take its toll on them both mentally and physically, but they press on due to a sense of responsibility and passion they hold for their charges.

Their daily routines today are like the routines throughout the year, except for dealing with the temperatures. The extreme cold is a concern for even the most winter-hearty animals. They start each day checking on the condition of every animal in their area, making sure all are doing well before starting their daily cleaning, feeding, and making sure they have fresh water.

The keepers will go about their day continually checking on each animal regardless of whether visitors show up or not. We normally see visitors every day of the year regardless of the weather; however, this past week has been like a ghost town as the weather made it dangerous to be outside if you didn’t have to be.

Could it be worse? Of course, it could. Fortunately, we are dealing with a minimal amount of snow on the ground. The year is still young and who knows what the remainder of this winter will give us, but working in snow just creates another hurdle that they just learn to deal with.

Even once we can get the pathways cleared, zookeepers will often have to shovel a path to their barns to get inside. In some cases, they also end up having to shovel out part of exhibits so the animals can get around, depending on the amount of snow we receive.

While the animal staff has been battling the weather, we’re already looking toward better days ahead as construction documents for the new African Plains Building should be completed this week and soon go out for bid. Once completed, this building will make days like this seem like any other day for visitors to view several of the animals that can’t currently be on exhibit due to the cold conditions.

This project will be constructed adjacent to the current giraffe barn to provide an open space for the giraffes to run, play and browse throughout the winter months and provide guests an opportunity to get out of the weather and view them in a climate-controlled building as well as year-round feeding opportunities. Eventually the zoo hopes to house other animals in this space, along with an African aviary.

Over the next few years, the goal will be to make the zoo a better place for the animals, staff and our guests. Stay warm if you can, but always plan ahead and be safe.