The Yorkshire Wildlife Park was all quiet yesterday after temporarily closing in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The gates were locked on Sunday evening due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation and today it is deserted, apart from rangers caring for all the animals.
The park has kept a core team of staff on site who will be working all hours to care for the animals. Three separate staff teams are in operation so that if one team is depleted by the virus, the other teams will be unaffected and can continue their vital work.
Colin is Deputy Carnivore Leader and he is being kept busy feeding the Meerkats and the African Painted Dogs amongst others.
It’s quite striking that all I can hear are the dogs and the birds in the woods. Normally this would be a busy area with guests everywhere and children playing together. It is very odd that we are in this kind of limbo. It is a really surreal kind of feeling. It is so important we knuckle down and do what the government is telling us. Let’s get this back to normal sooner by acting quicker.”
We have seen a lot of changes here following Covid-19, the biggest difference is that we are down to a skeleton staff. Previously we would look after 2-3 animals each per day but now we are looking after pretty much all of them. Although it’s fantastic to interact with the ones that we wouldn’t see every day, it’s still a lot of hard work to do,”
Yorkshire Wildlife Park will reopen when the time is right and looking after staff and visitors, as well as their animals will always remain their number one priority.
They’d like to thank everyone for their messages of support and to those who have bought tickets and vouchers for the future to help them out.
