Zookeepers and animals to welcome guests back to Adelaide Zoo and Monarto Safari Park on June 22 and 29 respectively
After more than 90 days of lockdown, Adelaide Zoo will open its gates to 1000 visitors next Monday and Monarto Safari Park will follow the week after.
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Adelaide Zoo will reopen ahead of schedule on Monday, welcoming up to 1000 visitors a day.
Monarto Safari Park will follow a week later, just in time for the July school holidays.
Zoos SA chief executive Elaine Bensted yesterday said enclosed spaces, such as the zoo’s Reptile House, would have a limit of one person per four square metres.
Details of how many people will be allowed to travel per bus to visit exhibits throughout Monarto Safari Park, near Murray Bridge, are still being determined by health authorities.
All visitors will need to pre-buy tickets online to meet capacity guidelines and enable traceability if needed.
Ms Bensted said before the pandemic, the 137-year-old zoo had only ever closed for one day in May 2016 after thieves tried to blow open an ATM at its entrance.
“We cannot wait to welcome back safely all our visitors, and I know our animals and staff have been missing everybody,” she said.
SA Health on Monday approved the 1000 capacity for both sites. Normally the zoo can hold 5000 people and the safari park 2000.
Both attractions were set to reopen in July after an unprecedented closure due to COVID-19 in March.
However, further easing of restrictions across the state had made it possible to re-open sooner, Ms Bensted said.
About 40 per cent of Zoos SA staff were stood down from March 25 without pay to ensure animal upkeep was maintained, while 400 volunteers were told to stay home.
Ms Bensted said the majority of the 250 staff would return to Adelaide Zoo when it reopens on June 22, ahead of Monarto Safari Park on June 29.
The last day of term two for most SA schools is July 3.
Among those preening their feathers for a return to business at the Adelaide Zoo is the star of the daily flight show – Manu the blue and gold crested macaw.
“He loves being in the show and he’s really missed it,” said zookeeper Giulia Pearce.
Manu has been working on some new tricks during the lockdown, while Monarto has welcomed four new lion cubs.
Meanwhile keepers across both sites have been taking unusual steps to keep their animals engaged with out the crowds – including telling jokes to very receptive chimpanzees at Monarto and uni-cycling past goats and meerkats at Adelaide Zoo.
