How exotics fared
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2005:
New Orleans Audubon Park Zoo president Ron Forman on October
3 told the World Association of Zoos & Aquariums annual conference in
New York that restoring the Audubon facilities would probably cost
$60 million.
“A skeleton staff of 12 struggled to feed and get water to
1,400 hungry and thirsty animals with limited emergency provisions,”
Oscar Corral of the Miami Herald reported on September 5. The crew
worked around “fallen palms, eucalyptus and willow trees blocking
the paths,” but “the animals mostly survived and are secure,”
Corral assured.
“One of the huge alligators is missing,” Corral noted, “and
some birds died,” along with two otters and a raccoon.
The Audubon Aquarium of the Americas fared far worse, Corral
added. About a third of the 6,000 resident fish and other marine
animals died within a week of Katrina, due to loss of electricity to
run the water and air circulation systems. Most of the rest died
during the next week, Associated Press writer Daisy Nguyen reported.
Nineteen penguins and two sea otters were rescued and flown
to the Monterey Bay Aquarium on September 9.