Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary opened its gates and welcomed eager visitors on Tuesday, June 16, after months of being closed to the public during the coronavirus pandemic.

  The facility shuttered its gates in mid-March but recently deemed it safe enough to reopen after implementing a number of safety guidelines for their staff and visitors.

  “We are doing everything on our end to keep our animals and our personnel and our visitors safe,” said Allison Hedgecoth, the Animal Husbandry Manager at Noah’s Ark.

  Since its reopening, Noah’s Ark has averaged about 500 visitors on weekdays, with numbers expected to increase over the weekends and as the summer progresses.

  As a non-profit organization, Noah’s Ark reported that it had been “tremendously impacted” by the closure.

  “We lost out on quite a bit of finances. But, one thing we are good at is saving money,” she said. “We are always prepared. You just have to be when you have as many animals as we do and you are responsible for all these different species and all their different needs. We were very lucky in that aspect and it certainly won’t easy.”

  However, the setback did not stop Noah’s Ark from operating as normally as possible with essential staff and impacted funding.

  “We continued to take in injured and orphaned native wildlife and provide all of our sanctuary residents with the best care possible,” said Hedgecoth.

  During the closure period, the staff at the sanctuary have taken the time to work on a number of projects around the facility, to include completing landscaping and fencing maintenance, expanding the fencing around the welcome center aviaries, and beginning work on their new parrot aviary.

  “It did allow us to get some projects done that it’s a little hard to do when we’re open to the public,” she said. 

  Hedgecoth mentioned that visitors have missed seeing their favorite animals while their gates have been closed, and it seems that certain animals have missed seeing the visitors as well.

  “Most of our animals prefer to live in peace and in quiet and prefer to be left alone. But we do have a couple of animals that really do seem to enjoy watching the public,” said Hedgecoth.

  One of their animal residents, a lioness named Liberty, has apparently missed interacting with her human visitors.

  “Liberty really enjoys just kind of watching people. Liberty would run from the top to the bottom [of her enclosure], especially if there were strollers or little kids. It is a predatory response to smaller people, but it’s still enriching for her,” she said. “I think, without the visitors, Liberty has put on a little bit of weight. So, she is currently on a diet and we’ll get her trimmed back down.” 

  Other animals at the sanctuary were able to enjoy alternate enrichment activities during the closure.

  The playground at Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary remains closed to the public due to safety concerns, but is serving another purpose for certain animal residents on the property. 

  “Our playground has a big gate that opens directly to our 80-acre pasture. Instead of letting the grass continue to grow higher, while it’s closed, we’ve opened the gates and we’ve let all of our horses and bison and llamas and goats and sheep and cows come and help us keep the grass trimmed down, which is great for them as well,” said Hedgecoth.

  Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary is currently offering their free self-guided tours and their WOW tours. 

  The sanctuary will continue to monitor the coronavirus situation to determine whether or not to remain open to the public.

  All of their updated policies and procedures are located on the homepage of their website for visitors to view before visiting Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary.

  For more information or to plan a visit to the sanctuary, take a look at their website at www.noahs-ark.org.