Virtual Zoo Visits Are Welcome Distraction Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Who can forget how the world was mesmerized by April the giraffe, the tallest most famous mother to be on the internet in 2017?
Animal videos in the time of coronavirus are a welcome distraction.
Just recently, video of an adorable penguin touring the closed Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, as if he was regular visitor was trending on social media. Staff members are taking animals on "field trips" for enrichment experiences.
WATCH: Wellington the penguin meet Beluga Whales
Fortunately, you can virtually visit all sorts of animals all over the country while you are staying safer at home.
Just this week, bird lovers began observing a newly hatched eagle in Fort Myers from the website Southwest Florida Eagle Cam.
At Zoo Miami, Ambassador Ron Magill was hip to this trend of live animal cams and helped launch their meerkat cam years ago.
"Meerkats are active. We figured if we can have a camera on them 24/7 people can go online. It's a great way to learn about these animals. Of all the animals especially meerkats because of all the animals there probably isn't one that more active than the meerkat," Magill states.
Zoo Miami's site has tens of thousands of hits on it, and meerkat fans keep coming back for more because their antics are hilarious.
"As a matter of fact we had an incident where we had to shut it down for a couple of hours and our phones blew up at the zoo, 'What happened to the meerkats? What happened to the meerkats?'," he recalled.
The National Zoo in Washington D.C. is famous for its pandacam. Even though pandas are not known for being especially busy, who doesn't love them?
Over on the west coast, the San Diego Zoo has several live cameras for watching all kinds of creatures – feathered , furry and fluttering.
Tampa's Florida Aquarium is posting daily videos of ocean dwellers on their cleverly named series "Sea-Span."
Finally, for penguin lovers can visit the site of the Tennessee Aquarium for feeding time and to spy more frolicking about of these birds in black tie.
Until they can allow visitors to come back, many zoos are providing updated content on your favorite creatures as well as all the educational info of course.
