Zoos Permanently Closed Due to COVID-19

I am currently aware of 3 zoos that have permanently closed due to COVID-19:

Special Memories Zoo (Greenville, Wisconsin, USA)
Cherry Brook Zoo (Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada)
Amazonia (Bellshill, Scotland, UK)

Any others? Here's hoping this list doesn't get any longer.

 

I hope that too.

 

I predict that it will, and that before this is over there will be major city zoos on the list.

 

I really fear that list is going to become much, much longer in the coming months and years.

For zoos in many countries there is still no certainty about if and when they can reopen, and even if they can reopen they will only be allowed to reopen with limited visitor numbers and additional measures to ensure safety and social distancing. So even when they reopen the revenue will be limited, especially if they also have to keep shops, restaurant and indoor animal venues closed.

It is likely there will be restriction for a year or more to come as the world continues to fight Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19, possibly until a vaccine has been developed and widely applied.

I also think that the entire leisure industry, including zoos, is going to suffer substantially from the long-term economic downturn resulting from this crisis, and probably from a lasting fear of crowds as well.

And finally I think the economic consequences of this crisis and their results for investments in animal welfare, conservation, education and scientific research are going to make zoos more vulnerable for attacks by their detractors, and might lead them to lose the support of an even larger section of the public, and possibly also that of governments.

Personally I am afraid that we will see many zoos failing and closing permanently in the coming months and years. And I think there will be some very major institutions on that list. I for example really fear that the zoos in my own province, Antwerpen, Planckendael and Olmen, are not going to be there anymore a year or so from now.

 

I'd be more worried about Pairi Daiza than Antwerp or Planckendael.

 

Pairi Daiza has so much financial backing and has been a profit making machine in the past couple of years, that I wouldn't worry about them, they say so themselves that they don't need any help and help should go to zoos that need it more. Nor would I worry about Antwerp or Planckendael, regardless of the rather sensationalist HLN article, they don't seem to be on the brink of collapse. The KMDA is too big to fail anyway, it would leave Flanders without a major zoo and politicians and people are not going to let that happen. Worrying about Olmen/Pakawi Park is more realistic....

 

All had other underlying issues, did they not.
Zoos close all the time from these...

 

Why...?

 

Just for strict accuracy, the most recent information on Amazonia is that their parent company has been placed under administration and many staff made redundant. Administration is a process designed in part to allow time for a new buyer to be sought before a company is fully-wound up, and as far as I can tell from what has been made public this process is still ongoing. So, while the omens are certainly not very good, it's not yet impossible that they will re-open under a new owner. They're part of a small theme park which is the only real example of the form in the whole of Scotland, so there is more to it than 'just' the (small) zoo. Just a case of wait-and-see at the moment.

EDIT: And yes, the media coverage indicates the park as a whole had been struggling for years, the current situation was the final straw rather the main problem.

 

I still think that from an outsider's perspective Pairi Daiza is probably the most financially-resilient of all European zoos. It's the pet project of a very wealthy man and is (as far as I'm aware) the only zoo that has actively discouraged donations and asked for them to be made to other institutions instead.

It's probably even safer than the big state-funded ones that have a certain amount of political shielding.

 

I should preface this by saying my initial comment was intended more to express confidence that Antwerp is too-significant-to-fail than to predict doom and gloom for Pairi Daiza. There’s a lot of ‘ifs’ in the below, but there are good reasons why I wouldn’t want to bet the house on it surviving whereas Antwerp (and with it Planckendael) is a 190 year old cultural icon for its city and region. As you say, that gives it significant political armour.

Pairi Daiza has no such patina, and I’m not convinced it would look quite the same if it were subject to normal market forces. An enormous amount of money has been sunk into it and the company itself could be carrying a lot of debt (which isn’t necessarily the same thing as the owner himself being in debt). If it *isn’t* carrying a lot of debt then it’s very likely got less cash on hand than most comparably sized businesses, because all that capital investment has come from somewhere.

Further, I suspect it’s also got among the highest non-discretionary overheads of any zoo in the world, given its collection, and because it’s a passion project chances are it operates either at a loss or on a small margin to begin with. Either way, right now it will be bleeding more money more quickly than other zoos that have been forced to live more within their means.

All of that might be fine, assuming the owner has the means and willingness to continue wearing the losses. If he doesn’t, I doubt it will be an easy zoo to sell as a going concern.

edit: I hadn’t scrolled up as far as @lintworm ’s comment. My understanding is PD is privately-held. Are their financial statements in fact publicly available?

 

Pairi Daiza is the zoo in Belgium I worry about the least and the one I think will get through this the most unscathed, but still, if this all lasts much longer (and it probably will) they will also suffer and likely have to postpone some investments. They are going to take a big hit, but will probably survive it better than other facilities.

So far there has not been ANY political talk of supporting zoos to get through this crisis here in Belgium, or at least none that I have heard about. It just is not a priority right now and I don't think it is on the political radar. Also, a large part of the public and some politicians are not fans of zoos, if not deadset against them, so supporting zoos to survive is something politicians know that will not help them keep their votes and positions - and a large part of the public will not take kindly to it either, saying there are different priorities right now. I just don't see that happening under the current circumstances. I don't there is going to be such a thing as too big to fail in a massive crisis like this.

If the KMDA zoos cannot reopen at least partially at some point this summer, I do not see them surviving this crisis at all, or at least suffering greatly for years to come.

Pakawi Park and De Zonnegloed are already in trouble and pretty much surviving by the grace of public donations. Something that much larger facilities like Antwerp and Planckendael cannot do, I think.

Pretty much all the businesses that wealthy man owns, runs or invests in are however closed for the time being. So that money pit isn't endless either. And the daily costs to keep the collection fed and cared for are high.

 

Their financial statements are normally reported in the Belgian (Dutch and French speaking press) and every company should deposit his annual financial report to the Belgian National Bank, where everyone can freely access their financial statements (which are in French). They have an annual revenue of >70 million euros and the net annual profit is around 7 million euros for the past few years, which is when accounting for all investments. Whereas they have a relatively high savings (30+ million euros), they have relatively high outstanding debt as well (>100 million euros, probably mostly in long-term bank loans), which is unsurprising giving the major investments. But as annual revenue, profit and savings are all high this shouldn't pose any problems. Both major investors in the park have received millions of dividend in recent years, so I don't think they will kill their cash cow and pet project, if things go on for much much longer. By that time many other zoos will have been long gone already.

If the KMDA will come into real financial trouble, something that hasn't happened yet, you will see that politicians do care. A few years ago the KMDA received a subsidy from the Flemish government worth 32.5 million euros for modernization purposes, that counts as significant political support in my opinion. The KMDA is deeply rooted within the city of Antwerp, Flanders and Belgium as a whole, more so than any other zoo, politicians are busy now, but if there would be a real outcry, you would be surprised of what is possible

I haven't seen any reliable research that supports your claim that a large part of the public is not a fan of zoos, there is a very vocal, but small minority against zoos, but most people either don't care or are (very) supportive of zoos. This minority does get attention in the press from time to time, because sensational stories sell, not because it reflects reality.

 

That’s all enormously better than I imagined, which is wonderful to learn - though it does fairly boggle the mind for a zoo to be that profitable. And credit to them for being upfront about that and urging supporters to help out other zoos instead.

 

The numbers are pretty ridiculous indeed, given that the combined annual revenue of Artis, Diergaarde Blijdorp and Burgers' Zoo, the three biggest zoos in the Netherlands, is just under 80 million euros... As another comparison even Zoo Berlin has an annual revenue which is less than half of Pairi Daiza. I think that in Europe only Zooparc de Beauval comes close, with a reported revenue of 66 million euros in 2019. Note that they also own a couple of hotels (just like Pairi Daiza), so a direct comparison is a bit unfair.

 

Project-based subsidies are not the same as structural political support and something that can be far more easily be cut or pulled back, I think. I also believe these project subsidies were intended to be a one-time thing anyway.

I think the fact that zoo-related articles draw in dozens and sometimes hundreds of anti-zoo comments speaks for there being pretty substantial anti-zoo sentiment in society today. The recent KMDA article had hundreds of negative comments, from calling the zoo a beggar to many comments on zoos being animal abuse and enjoyment for stupid, cruel people and many people expressing hope or calling for the zoo to remain closed forever, and for the animals to be released or sent to sanctuaries. Those comments also got hundreds of likes. So I'd say there is a substantial amount of anti-zoo sentiment in society, enough I think that some politicians might try to capitalize on it and use it when zoo-related matters come up, in a hope to draw in sympathy and votes.

If it were to come to it, an outcry from the KMDA or other zoos for government support would probably be met with major opposition and harsh criticism not only from the anti-zoo and animal rights crowd, but also from people who say there are other industries more deserving of being bailed out by the government - to the extent that politicians would likely be swayed. I just don't see government support happening in the current social, political and economic climate.

I predict that the next few years will become very difficult and very unpleasant for zoos, and that many will not be around five or so years from now. And if a vaccine against Sars-CoV-2 isn't developed and widely applied by, say, the end of 2021, I fear that very few zoos will survive the long-lasting social distancing restrictions, and that most if not all will go down into history with much if not all of the leisure industry. I don't even want to think about what that will mean for the animals in zoological collections.

 

I hope that the zoos that survive will live more within their means.

The people in charge of charitable zoos shouldn't be on 6 figure salaries and future projects should be more economical. Some zoos have spent millions of pounds on spacious enclosures for species that are reasonably common in zoos and are not part of reintroduction projects. Sometimes it seems hard to work out how the exhibits have cost too much and I think some architects etc have charged more than they should have.

One of my favourite exhibits was the rodent house at Berlin Tierpark. This was seemed to be little more than a couple of garden sheds joined together and I doubt if it cost much to make. I also remember the cost of converting an enclosure at Highlands Wildlife Park. £85! That goes to show that zoos can be run economically and may be one of the better things to come out of the current crisis.

 

Whatever way you frame it, it is a clear sign of governmental support pro zoo, indicating a majority of politicians is pro zoo.

You are again overestimating anti-zoo sentiments. Fortunately the people who comment on newspaper articles are not a valid representation of society, these keyboard warriors are generally much more extreme in their views and make up only a small percentage of the overall population. To put your numbers into perspective, the Antwerp Zoo has 140.000 likes on facebooks and every post sees dozens to hundreds of reactions often more than 1000 likes.

Edit: I found an independent poll (not one of those animal rights ones) from the US from 2 years ago that found 73% of people supporting zoos, 17% against zoos, of with 25% strongly opposed zoos (so only %), 10% of people didn't know. This shows how exagerated your views can get if you base yourself only on social media (my advice, don't even bother to read comments under news articles....)

 

Obviously we can't say for sure at this point exactly what will play out, but bear in mind that there are multiple tactics in play, and if the wait for a vaccine is a longer one there will be other approaches that can combat this at least to a degree in the mean time. The armoury and arsenal we have now is not the one we will have in 6 months' time, or in 12 months', and a huge amount of energy and money will be going into making ways that we can live with the presence of this virus in a less disruptive way (whether that's more and/or better physical shielding, medical treatment, detection, hygiene methods or anything else). It's not going to be a great time for zoos, certainly not in the immediate term, but like most fields the situation will almost certainly improve in time.

The world is not sitting around while this happens (mostly) - once the understandable and necessary urgent crisis response has settled into 'a new normal'* then ways for 'non-essential' and higher-risk activities to resume in some form will start to come through. It's going to be a strange year or two, but if people stick the restrictions that are in place then most things will keep going in some form while the long-term picture sorts itself out.

The animal welfare concerns are actually I think in some ways helpful to zoos - they cannot be allowed by politicians to close tomorrow without a thought beyond the unemployment cheques in the way a theatre, library or sports club could be. Any closures would be difficult and long-drawn out by their very nature, so when the problem can just be paid to go away for a few months I think a lot of politicians would much rather take that option when it comes to the crunch.





*I don't like this rather glib phrase but there's no better one to cover my meaning - it bugs me because it implies this immediate-post-intense-lockdown scenario will be normal forever - when really it will be a temporary normal, one way or the other.

 

The current situation will be very challenging for zoos, as they lose income right now. In the long run this crisis might actually strengthen zoos. Firstly, expect long-term travel restrictions, which makes that people will have to spend their holidays and leisure budget in their own country or in their neighboring countries, which will mean that zoos will take their share of this expenditure.

The current restrictions also show the importance of going out, being in touch with nature and this will benefit zoos as well. On top of this the education role of zoos is stressed again with the source of this crisis most likely being wildlife trade.

And expect zoos to open before summer is over, people need to go out and zoos will be among the places that can offer that safely. There will be visitor restrictions though and the question if this outweighs the increased costs for some of the zoos.

And on Antwerp. No Flemish politician will let them fail, they are too important as an institution for the country.