What happens at zoos after hours?

After the zoo closes, keepers feed the animals and help them get ready for the night. CORALIE: Some zoos had people work the night shift. It's their job to feed the baby animals and check on the adults. MOLLY: Some keepers even have to pick up animals at the airport.



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Some animals are sold directly to game reserves while others are brought to auction. The paper trail following where the animals go is not always easily accessible and most cases exposing these transactions have been through undercover work.

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A nocturnal house, sometimes called a nocturama, is a building in a zoo or research establishment where nocturnal animals are kept and viewable by the public.

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Zookeepers are often required to be available at all times of the day and night. Since animals need constant care, a zookeeper's schedule can include nights, weekends and holidays in addition to early morning and daytime hours.

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Studies conducted so far indicate that animals kept in unstimulating environments may demonstrate boredom by becoming less active as well as being more likely to react to new stimuli, even when that stimuli is aversive.

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Zoos and aquariums also often rehabilitate injured animals, and then release them into the wild.

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If the animals are not too dangerous, keepers can, enter the enclosure with “baffle boards”, which are large wooden shields with handles that they hold between themselves and the animals and they can use such handy items as brooms to push the fighters apart, or even nets.

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Polar bears are the animals that do worst in captivity. Carnivores such as polar bears, tigers, cheetahs, and lions are especially poorly suited for life in a zoo, according to a new study. The more an animal roams in the wild, the researchers found, the worse it fares in captivity.

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Wild animals often get more sleep when they are in a zoo. Food is provided for them, and they are safe from predators. So they can relax and sleep for longer periods of time. In contrast, animals have to spend time hunting or gathering their food in the wild.

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Most zoos close when the sun sets. This gives the animals a break from visitors and many of them rest and sleep at this time. Keeping a zoo open after dark would require lighting up all the habitats and that would be costly and fairly ineffective.

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Discovering New Sights and Sounds Children of all ages love to experience new things, and every exhibit at the zoo offers opportunities for novel sensory experiences. The limitless variety of animal behaviors can even surprise and delight children who have been to the zoo many times.

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