Zoos in Mexico taking in coronavirus 'refugees'

Kira, a two-and-a-half-year-old tiger, arrived at a zoo in Mexico’s northeast in April after her owner could no longer feed her due to the coronavirus-induced economic collapse.

The imposing 130-kilogram tigress was sedated and transported in a cage by truck to her new home in Culiacan zoo in Sinaloa state.

Her owner had responded to a campaign by Mexico’s Association of Zoos, Nurseries and Aquariums (AZCARM) to avoid abandoning wild animals during the months-long lockdown.

“Abandonment happens when people can’t cope with their animals any more, and in this pandemic, faced with the lack of economic resources and places to keep them, they prefer to get rid of them,” AZCARM president Ernesto Zazueta said.

Alongside the big cat, the Culiacan zoo also welcomed during the lockdown a python, a baby manatee and 14 green macaws, as well as 49 deer rescued from a sugar mill in Tabasco.

The deer arrived at the zoo suffering from malnutrition. Now they graze in a large enclosure alongside ostriches, giraffes and antelopes.

“The tiger was reported because they couldn’t look after it; but as for the deer ... it was an emergency because they didn’t have any food or even anyone to look after them, on top of being in a place that was inadequate for the species,” said Diego Garcia, Culiacan’s director.

Mexican zoos have been rescuing illegally trafficked wild animals for years, and others from circuses since a 2015 ban on shows using live animals.

In these reserves, experts try to rehabilitate the animals and where possible return them to their habitat.

But many are forced to live the rest of their lives in zoos because of the long-term physical damage they’ve suffered or because they’ve lost their wild instincts.

“When the animals arrive we evaluate them, we rehabilitate them ... Many cannot return to the wild because they don’t know how to survive, they don’t know how to hunt, nor how to defend themselves,” said Zazueta.