Saturday

Many parts of the world are currently living in lockdown. While most have taken steps to isolate themselves in the comfort of their homes, others decided to do so by traveling out into the provinces to stay in their summer or garden houses.

Yet others are making an unorthodox decision to self-isolate in their workplace. No, this isn’t an April Fool’s Day joke. And no, I’m not trying to spin the technicality that since many are now working from home, they are technically self-isolating at work.

No, this is very real as a handful of zookeepers have decided to self-isolate in their workplace.

A bit over a week ago, Paradise Park, a wildlife sanctuary in Hayle, Cornwall, UK with whom Bored Panda got in touch, announced that it would be temporarily closing its doors to the public due to the coronavirus outbreak. The park stated that it is now important for them to ensure the animals continue to get high-quality care and for that, they must guarantee the health and safety of their zookeeping staff.

In light of this news, four of its staff members—Izzy, Emily, Layla, and Sarah-Jane—have volunteered to move into the park and to self-isolate. During the 12-week self-isolation period, they will continue to be supported by a number of their colleagues coming in during their shifts.

“All our keepers are really dedicated to the animals, but some also have vulnerable family members at home. When they heard the advice about self-isolating to combat the coronavirus, they had to make a decision about whether to stay away from work and isolate with their families. But then they suggested that they could come and stay in the house at Paradise Park to be there for the birds every day without risking the health of their families,” explained Alison Hales, Director of Paradise Park.


The reason why the four zookeepers decided to move into the Zoo’s onsite house was a precautionary one. Besides having vulnerable family at home and not wanting to put them at risk of bringing the virus back, Izzy also explained that if worse comes to worst and all of the zookeeping staff is unable to work, at least she and her three colleagues will be able to pick up the pace in taking care of the animals.


Paradise Park is home to around 1,200 birds as well as a number of various mammals like red (probably bored) pandas, red squirrels, Asian otters, harvest mice, and the Fun Farm animals. With over a thousand animals living in the zoo, looking after, feeding, cleaning, medicating, and doing other vital activities is no easy task even without the pandemic over one’s shoulder.
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