Hurricane Milton: Where will zoo animals go?

(NewsNation) — Florida residents aren’t the lone ones bracing for Hurricane Milton — penguins, flamingos, rhinos and different Zoo animals crossed the indispensable besides find structure to upwind the storm.

Ron Magill, manager of communications for Zoo Miami, joined "Morning successful America" connected Wednesday to explicate however those decisions are made and which animals, if any, zoo unit whitethorn evacuate.

Milton’s strength has gone backmost and distant passim the week. It’s expected to marque landfall either Wednesday nighttime oregon Thursday greeting arsenic a Category 5 hurricane, according to National Hurricane Center forecasts.

“I’m profoundly worried,” Magill said. “When you speech astir Tampa Zoo, the Florida aquarium — these are places that are truthful exposed close present to this monstrous storm. Having lived done Andrew and Wilma present successful Miami erstwhile we were devastated by those storms, I tin lone conscionable ideate what’s going to hap up there.”

The storm’s precocious winds and surging h2o could enactment smaller animals who are usually successful outdoor settings astatine the top risk. Aquariums besides look imaginable challenges. The hurricane could disable vessel filtration systems, which Magill called the “life-support” for food and different aquatic animals.

“A misconception radical person astir zoos and aquariums is that we evacuate animals (and) that we nonstop them to different location,” Magill said. “That seldom — if ever — happens. What we bash successful zoos and aquariums is we instrumentality the much susceptible animals similar birds and smaller mammals and we volition instrumentality them and enactment them successful tiny entity kennels, similar what you transport them successful connected an airplane, and past enactment those kennels successful fortified buildings wrong the zoo property.”

“When you determination animals, the accent you enactment connected them sometimes is much unsafe than the tempest itself,” Magill said.

The animals won’t beryllium near alone. All accredited zoos person a squad that stays connected the grounds 24/7, Magill said. Some attractions similar Zoo Miami besides person what’s called a lethal effect squad — a radical that, equipped with rifles, would expanse the parkland aft the tempest to marque definite each carnal is wherever it should be, Magill said.

“The No. 1 precedence is information for the nationalist by ensuring that these animals are inactive unafraid and past afterwards, clearing a mode to get to them to instrumentality attraction of them,” helium said.