Volcanic Ash -vs- The Animals at The Alaska Zoo

I was asked a very good question the other day, one I didn’t know the answer to. “What is the zoo’s plan for all the animals if Anchorage should happen to get the ash-fall from Mt. Redoubt?”

I know from experience that volcanic ash is not something you want to be breathing in. Just 5 minutes of being outside during Mt. Spur’s eruption back in 1992 had my throat raw and burning.

So what do we do with the animals? I asked Shannon Jensen, the curator of the zoo that very question.

Here’s the plan:

Animals which can be moved inside will be. These include most of the ones who have the worst medical conditions like the birds and small mammals.

Animals like the tigers, polar bears, and such will be put in lock-down in their dens. This will provide them with some protection, at least. The dens are not ventilated with filters or anything like that, but at least they will be out of direct contact.

Unfortunately, that does leave some animals outside. The yaks, the musk ox, the moose: all of these animals, and more, cannot be crated up or transported anywhere so will have to be left outside. They will be tended to after the event, should any have need of medicinal care.

We will just have to hope for either no ash (not likely, since we’re already experiencing it in trace amounts) or for precipitation. Either rain or snow falling either during or after the ash would be immensely helpful.

We’ll just have to wait and see.