Honolulu Zoo prepares nearly 1,000 animals for Tropical Storm Lala

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – While it remains business as usual for the animals at the Honolulu Zoo, staff are taking precautions ahead of Tropical Storm Lala.

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Lala is expected to become a hurricane as it approaches Hawaii Island on Saturday morning.

The zoo is home to 992 animals, and preparing for a storm means making sure they have enough food, reliable power and safe shelter if weather conditions deteriorate.

“We’re just a small city within the city, but a complicated little piece of it that has almost 1,000 residents that are quick to express their displeasure if they’re not being managed well,” Honolulu Zoo Director John Berry said.

One of the zoo’s top priorities is making sure there is enough food on hand if storm conditions affect deliveries.

Staff have stocked the commissary with additional dry, fresh and frozen food, including produce that can last longer, such as cabbage.

“Today we focused on getting fresh produce in and things that will last a little bit longer, like cabbages,” Berry said.

The zoo is also preparing for a potential power outage. Staff have topped off diesel fuel for the facility’s backup generators, which can keep critical operations running for about 48 hours if power is lost.

How the animals respond to the storm will depend largely on their size and enclosure.

Some of the zoo’s larger animals may actually enjoy the weather. Berry said elephants, for example, can turn heavy rain into what he described as the biggest mud bath of the year.

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Giraffes and some other larger animals can also remain outside during rough weather.

Smaller animals, particularly birds housed in more fragile enclosures, require more careful planning.

Zookeepers may need to move some animals indoors if conditions become dangerous, but the process itself can be stressful for the animals and take hours.

“A small bird also, just catching it up, can create stress and we want to try to avoid that,” Berry said. “And so we wait until the absolute last minute.”

Depending on the circumstances, Berry said moving animals indoors could take about an hour and a half, and in the worst-case scenario, up to three hours.

Zoo staff will continue monitoring the storm and make decisions based on changing conditions.

“I think we’re ready and we just hope, hopefully the storm passes us by, but always better to be ready,” Berry said.

For the zoo, the goal is to keep all 992 animals safe, fed and as comfortable as possible while the storm passes.

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