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But the human visitors haven't been around for
a month, since the start of a national coronavirus lockdown in
Israel, and the animals miss staring at them, zoo keepers say.
"They are sitting above, they are playing with each other," Nili
Avni-Magen, the zoo's head veterinarian, said at the primates'
enclosure. "We are trying to do enrichments but they are missing
the visitors in the big front window."
A sprawling site in Jerusalem, the zoo contains a wide variety
of animals but gives pride of place to species mentioned in the
bible.
With no visitors around, the animals must make do with
interacting with their keepers, who are busy feeding and tending
to kangaroos, zebras and elephants.
When a Reuters television crew toured the zoo, black-and- gold
howler monkeys came out of their house, eager to take a look.
"They are really missing it," Avni-Magen said about the daily
interaction with visitors. "They are sitting and waiting that
the zoo will open again."
The lions, however, seem to be an exception, sidling closer to
their keepers and the front areas of their compound now that the
crowds are gone.
"They feel more secure when they see less people," Avni-Magen
said.
(Reporting by Eli Berlzon'; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; editing
by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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