Lonely zoo animals miss visitors

Lockdown creatures great and small, all residents at Providence Zoo, Rhode Island, are pining for their audience.

Since closing to the public on 14th March, a skeleton crew of keepers and vets sporting protective masks have been the US zoo animals' only company.

One of the Rhode Island keepers, Lisa Ruggiero, shares how her wild charges were affected by their new attire.

Lisa Ruggiero: They did look at us a little funny, but we still have them on but we've had them on for over a month now so they don't really seem to care, they hear our voice and they know it's us."

Among the most historic zoos in the country, Providence zoo, which first welcomed paying guests in 1872, regularly receives hundreds of visitors a day. While for most of its residents the absence of babbling children offering food is a disappointment, as keeper Jennifer Hennessy observes, for some the peace and tranquillity has its advantages.

Jennifer Hennessy: I feel like they are really missing the visitors as well as all the staff. There's some perks for some of the animals, the tortoise gets to walk wherever she wants to go, she is hiding in the bushes over there, but overall we just really miss our public and visitors.

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