Twin storms damage zoo, delay opening (Maryland Zoo)

[Donna]

This month's historic snowstorms caused at least $1.5 million damage at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, delaying its opening by up to a month and further threatening an institution that has struggled to emerge from financial difficulties.After the zoo nearly lost its accreditation two years ago, its staff had worked to make improvements and put the facility on firm financial footing. But the costs of storm- related repairs, employee overtime and lost revenue pose a new challenge.

"This is a big, big setback," said the zoo's president, Donald Hutchinson, a former Baltimore County executive hired to revitalize the facility in 2008. "We're hoping that everyone who loves the zoo will help us bounce back."Two aviaries - homes to gangly African spoonbills, wedge-headed mergansers and other birds - are in tatters. A huge limb has fallen from the leopard's preferred perch. And a long-eared owl is on the lam, circling the Druid Hill Park area in search of furry snacks.

 Zoo employees worked around the clock through the storms, shoveling paths to enable food to be taken to the creatures' winter cages and sleeping at the old mansion that serves as the administrative offices. But they were no match for the weather.

The weight of the snow toppled posts that supported the wire mesh enclosures of the African and Chesapeake marsh aviaries. No birds were injured, but the owl and a teal, a type of duck, escaped.

The teal returned to join its mate, said Karl Kranz, the zoo's chief operating officer. But the owl, whose big yellow eyes and upward-pointing ears give it an expression of perpetual surprise, has eluded workers.

As the storms began, workers tried to shake snow off the aviaries, a dangerous job, but they were forced to give up in the face of blizzardlike conditions.

"The snow was coming so fast we just couldn't make any headway," said Mike McClure, the zoo's chief curator, who slept in his office much of last week.

Feb 24, 2010

In a delayed effect from Sunday's heavy snow, the walk-through marsh aviary of the Baltimore Zoo's Maryland Wilderness section collapsed and four ducks took advantage of ripped netting to fly the coop -- at least temporarily.

None of the 37 birds occupying the open-air exhibit was hurt, but the collapse discovered by keepers Monday morning caused thousands of dollars in damage that will force the closing of the aviary, probably until April, said Brian A. Rutledge, the zoo director.

The collapse, he said, was caused by temperature changes that first began melting the snow and then caused it to freeze over the net openings. Tons of snow and ice proved to be too heavy for the structure as a heavy wooden perimeter support pole and a center cable snapped, and the fabric enclosing the approximately 10,000-square-foot exhibit ripped apart.

The aviary, which cost about $225,000 to build, opened in the fall of 1989 as one of several major components of the eight-acre Lyn P. Meyerhoff Maryland Wilderness and Children's Zoo. During the summer, it is home to more than 50 birds of 13 different species, along with a variety of stream-dwelling creatures.

In late fall, birds that would normally migrate for the winter were moved indoors, leaving two owls and 35 ducks of seven species to inhabit the exhibit -- which also includes a human-size oriole nest and lily pads for children to hop across.

The year-round inhabitants also are indoors now, including two of the escaped ducks that decided to return the same way they left -- through the open netting.

"Usually when you have an escaped animal, that's how you get them back -- open the door and get out of the way," Mr. Rutledge said. Still missing are two green-wing teals.