The Little Rock Zoo is roaring back into business in June.
Starting June 22, the zoo will be open to members, and it will reopen to the general public on June 29. Little Rock Zoo Director Susan Altrui unveiled the zoo’s reopening plan during a virtual meeting on Monday, June 15.
The zoo has been closed since March 16, when it was closed to limit the spread of COVID-19. In the wake of the closure, zoo officials have been developing a reopening plan, which was devised using guidelines drawn from a number of sources. Altrui said the plan was drawn from expertise at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Arkansas Department of Health, World Health Organization and other agencies.
Under the reopening plan, the Little Rock Zoo will be relaunching in a three-phase opening. As part of the plan, there will be limited guest capacities at the zoo during the first two phases. During these phases, there will be a limit of 2,760 guest per day.
This guest number is based on a capacity formula that Association of Zoos and Aquariums have used to calculate capacity. According to the figures provided by the zoo, there is a total of 99,356 square feet of open space, and dividing this total by 36 square feet results in the capacity number of 2,760.
Altrui said the zoo will be operating under the state’s Phase I reopening guidelines. This reopening plan was approved while the Phase I guidelines – in which outdoor venues were allowed to open to one-thirds capacity – were in place. (Under the Phase II guidelines, outdoor venues are allowed to reopen to two-thirds percent capacity.)
In addition to capacity limits, zoo admissions will be spaced out throughout the day with timed entries. Altrui stated that there will be an online ticketing purchasing process that will help collect names and information that could be necessary in the event of an outbreak, as well as providing touchless gate entry.
“This is a great way to eliminate congestion at the front entryway,” she said.
Based on a slideshow provided by the zoo, the timed admission will begin at 9 a.m. and each time slot will run for 30 minutes. There will be 30-minute time slots from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m, and she expects that it will take two hours to two-and-a-half hours to get through the zoo. The Little Rock Zoo, Altrui said, will be closing at 4 p.m. each day.
In Phase I and Phase II, guests will follow a one-way path through the zoo. Altrui hopes that guests find the new path “engaging” and said that, based on prior feedback, that guests will see parts of the zoo they may not have seen previously. “It’s a good tour and it’s a long pathway,” she said.
Parts of the zoo will remain closed during the first two phases of the reopening process. Notably, the playgrounds, tropical bird houses, naked mole rat locations, lorikeet feeding area, farm feeders, conservation learning center and train will be closed during Phase I and II.
While Altrui expects to open up the majority of the zoo in Phase III, she said that the COVID-19 pandemic represents a “new tomorrow” that will likely change its operations permanently.
As the zoo works to reopen, Altrui will be focusing the City of Little Rock’s guidance rather than the state’s lead. She called the City of Little Rock the zoo’s “guiding barometer” and said that the city’s approach will likely be different from the state’s approach.
“Our capacity is going to be a little different from what the state’s is,” Altrui said.
READ MORE: COVID-19 Taking a Big Bite Out of Little Rock Zoo