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White rhinoceros at ZooTampa in Tampa, Fla., on April 23, 2024. (Wikimedia Commons)
Millions of people on Florida’s Gulf Coast are preparing to evacuate as Hurricane Milton threatens their lives. But not the zoo and aquarium animals of Tampa.
With staff members hurriedly preparing around them, the animals are chomping away on shrimp or eucalyptus as the area’s biggest threat in a century barrels toward humans and beasts alike. The employees know what to do, but many facilities are still reeling from Hurricane Helene’s deadly effects a week ago.
Despite being already taxed by Helene, all of the animal-care professionals who spoke with The Washington Post on Tuesday said they have redundancies to ensure no sharks or Malayan tigers (yes, they’re skilled swimmers) are zipping around the streets of Tampa.
Many animals are catching a ride out of town from the Florida Aquarium, including six snakes, three lizards, three turtles, two toads, two alligators, a hermit crab and a smack of moon jellies (that’s what a group of jellyfish is called). Lifeforms that aren’t obvious to the naked eye also are being saved, including endangered pillar and elkhorn coral, many of which are heading to West Palm Beach and Miami, and some to Georgia. Sandra Torres, marketing head of ZooTampa at Lowry Park, said the zoo is at its highest level of hurricane preparation for Milton.
Some animals don’t need help, she said. For example, alligators ride out hurricanes at the bottom of their ponds. Staff are focusing on the animals that don’t have nighttime enclosures, she said, such as the many birds that are now being crated and put in buildings rated to withstand some hurricanes.
The zoo takes extra care to safeguard extremely rare animals, including the red wolf. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the animal as critically endangered and says there are only 20 to 30 mature red wolves in the wild.
“Nobody wants to lose an animal, but [certainly] not an endangered animal. It’s like a double whammy,” Torres said.
There is skill to corralling the animals, she said. Like some humans, animals don’t like to be rushed. Even as catastrophe swirls closer every second, she said, the staff have to calmly usher the animals into crates. In these moments, animal-care professionals are rewarded for the rapport they’ve built with the animals well before hurricane season.
“All of that ends up paying off when it comes time for a hurricane and you have to move them because it’s not as stressful for the animal,” Torres said.
Then there are the animals that can’t simply fit into a crate, such as the elephants and giraffes. Staff are moving them into a hurricane-proof barn with all the hay, food and water they need to survive for a few days in case the building isn’t accessible, she said.
About a dozen people will stay at the zoo through the storm, she said, including care staff and a medic. Torres said staffers volunteered to join the team, giving up the chance to evacuate the area and sleeping in what will be a very loud building filled with scared animals.
A team of eight people will remain at the Florida Aquarium in downtown Tampa through Milton, said aquarium CEO Roger Germann. The staff will focus on ensuring generators stay powered so the aquarium’s filtration systems remain active.
He said he would probably pull the team if Milton looks like it will touch down as a Category 3 storm, which it certainly might. Milton has much of the Tampa Bay area on edge, especially after the lashing delivered by Helene, because it is so vulnerable to deadly storm surge.
Germann said the wharf by the aquarium, which sits on the bay, usually doesn’t take on water during hurricanes - but Helene brought an unprecedented three feet of storm surge on the aquarium’s east side.
Milton carries an even greater threat of storm surge, potentially 10 to 15 feet.
Germann said his staff have sandbagged the building but also moved their penguins, lemurs and birds to the second and third floors.
Smaller animal tourism outfits, without multiple floors and multimillion-dollar grants, face different challenges. The staff of Croc Encounters, a reptile-focused animal park in Tampa, was busy Tuesday preparing more than 100 alligators and crocodiles, said John Paner, who has run the business with his wife for 20 years.
The crocs and gators will join snakes, which he assures are double-bagged and locked up, inside a steel shipping container for the duration of the storm.
“You can drop a tree on it and not have a problem,” he said.
The process is an immense amount of work for his staff, who just unwound all their preparations from Helene. The tight turnaround increases the strain on him and his staff. Paner said he and his wife plan to ride out the storm in their container - their home.
“You got to hope for the best,” he said with a pause and sigh, “and it goes from there.”
Across the bay in Pinellas County, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium was hit hard by Helene and is now facing the worst of Milton.
“It’s already not a great situation,” said Marsha Strickhouser, head of media relations for the Clearwater aquarium.
The aquarium is at risk of storm surge because it sits on an island between the bluff that holds the city of Clearwater and the barrier that is Clearwater Beach.
Strickhouser said many of their most sensitive animals were evacuated after Helene because four feet of storm surge took out many filtration systems. No filtration means manatee and other animals eventually are left swimming in their own excrement, which is why the aquarium’s two manatees were transferred to ZooTampa.
Strickhouser evacuated to Tallahassee.
After speaking to his wife and children, Germann of the Florida Aquarium said his family will be at home, about a 10-minute drive from his office, during the storm. He said Tuesday morning that his neighborhood isn’t in an evacuation zone.
“I feel a responsibility, obviously, to our staff … to be in town and be close and make things happen to get back on our feet, whatever that looks like,” he said.
Germann, a Chicago native who moved to the area for the job seven years ago, said people have a misconception about the humans who chose to stay put in such situations.
“The decisions people make aren’t always out of stubbornness,” he said, adding: “Those that chose to stay have really thought through it all and feel confident they can manage the storm and manage the back end of it.”
