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Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, MI (WNEM) — Wind chills and cold air keeps zoo keepers at the Saginaw Children’s Zoo busy.
Lead Keeper Mia Banaszek said this is one of the coldest days the zoo has had.
“It’s pretty cold,” Banaszek said. “Usually we don’t get this low in the negatives so some special precautions we’re taking is keepers can’t be outside more than 15-20 minutes. We’re checking on each other, a lot of us are doing buddy systems and we’re just making sure we’re taking a lot of breaks to keep us safe as well as the animals.”
Zoo keepers have more work on their hands to keep the animals safe and warm during this freeze. They set out extra bedding, warming mats, and heat lamps.
That isn’t enough for some animals.
“It’s pretty rare, the animals that are tropical animals are usually inside for most of the winter anyway but some animals that spend their whole winter outside if we know that they’re a little older or some ailments, we’ll take extra precautions and move them inside and that’s maybe once or twice a year,” Banaszek said.
Some animals like the white tail deer and shire horses are enjoying the cold, but others aren’t.
“We take every animal into consideration and make sure that we’re doing the best for them,” Banaszek said.
She said that they will continue to monitor the weather for the rest of the winter and can’t wait to see guests again in the spring.
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