(lion roaring)

(wolf howling)

(lions roaring)

- Hi everybody,

welcome to the Animal Park at the Conservators Center,

we're gonna take you on a little behind

the scenes tour just to take a look at

how we are functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So without being able to have our public tours here,

the animals are definitely getting

a little bit less attention than they're used to.

Thankfully our staff is committed to their behavior

and their health.

Ah so what were doing to protect

the animals is wearing masks

and covering our hands in gloves.

The mask that I am wearing right now was actually made out

of autoclave material

and donated by one of our local veterinarians.

So thankfully as we are an all weather facility,

the keepers have had to wear face masks around

the animal just to be able to protect ourselves from

the cold or any kind of nasty wind.

So the animals have been pretty well desensitized.

I wouldn't say that they are totally used to it

and they don't love it.

They do use a lot of facial cues to be able

to kind of communicate with us.

Thankfully, within our team we're really well trained

and we know to kind of be ready for that.

And the bigger thing for us

to be able to show them is more our eyes

and our attitude.

And we just make sure to take our time

and either use it as a training tool or change our husbandry

so that the animal stays as comfortable as possible.

Being a behavior specialists we are able

to actually share space with our wolf pups.

They just turned a year old about a week,

maybe two weeks ago.

And we've been with them

since they've been about eight weeks old.

(wolf barking)

- Oh. - Oh.

For the bubble bath

that we're providing them with,

kind of provides a lot of different stimulus.

Our northwestern wolves are very interested

in water in general.

So any time that we can make that water

a little bit more exciting is gonna give them something else

to think about within their environment.

By adding something as simple as bubbles,

now they can't really see the bottom

of the pool.

It adds another texture,

another smell,

and just a general complexity to their environment.

Something that they don't engage

with every single day makes it

so that it's a little bit more interesting

when we do provide it for them.

One of our large concerns here

of course is how long this quarantine is going to last.

Making sure that we keep track

of things like our supply chain,

the animal health,

keeping our veterinarians up

to date on everything that's going on.

We've been kind of limiting

how many resources we are using at a time

to ensure that we can use them for as long as possible.

Thankfully as a small nonprofit we are still able

to keep all of our paid staff employed right now.

But everybody is doing things that are

a little bit outside of their normal task regimen.

They're helping out in construction more,

they're helping out in animal care when they can.

It's more of our social animals may get

a little bit more needy if they are just used

to seeing the same people over and over again.

So changing how we engage with the animals,

may be taking our lunch break with them,

taking a book out to read.

The longer that this goes on it's basically just

the more creative that we're gonna have to become.

So as you can see,

we provide the animals the choice

in control to be a part of their therapy.

So while I had the light on Lena,

for just a quick moment to see how she felt,

she left the area and I didn't follow after her.

Versus Oz who if you do anything

that's on the ground,

he just wants to be part of your life.

And he doesn't even really notice that there is a light

or any kind of therapy or anything happening

on his back end.

Careful.

Now he wants to say I love you

or pee on me, yeah.

I want to thank you all for joining us today

on our little behind the scenes tour.

We cannot wait to have visitors be able to come back

on grounds and join us for

a real tour here with us and with the animals.

In the meantime,

if you have anything to spare we are

so grateful for any kind of donation.

You can find a lot of our options on our website

animalparknc.org.

You can also follow us on social media.

We have Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram,

and even some really cute videos on TikTok.

If you have time to reach out to any

of your local institutions as well,

We are all in this together.

(upbeat music)