--- title: "Zoo Says Coronavirus May Force It to Feed Animals to Each Other" description: "Zoos in Germany might have to resort to some grim measures to keep doors open during the pandemic — slaughtering and even feeding animals to each other." date: "2020-04-15" modified: "2020-04-15" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/zoo-coronavirus-force-feed-animals" categories: - "Future Society" - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" - "Pathogens" - "Viruses" tags: - "coronavirus" - "germany" - "the digest" - "zoos" --- # Zoo Says Coronavirus May Force It to Feed Animals to Each Other ![Zoos in Germany might have to resort to some grim measures to keep doors open during the pandemic — slaughtering and even feeding animals to each other.]() *\Image: Images via Pixabay/Victor Tangermann\* ## Feeding Frenzy Zoos may have to resort to grim measures to keep afloat open during the coronavirus pandemic — including slaughtering and even feeding animals to each other. "We've listed the animals we'll have to slaughter first," Neumünster Zoo's Verena Kaspari [toldGerman newspaper *Die Welt*](), as [translated by the *BBC*](). "At the worst, we would have to feed some of the animals to others." "If it comes to it, I'll have to euthanise animals, rather than let them starve," she added. ## Hard Times Zoos have resorted to setting up livestreams so that animal enthusiasts can watch their favorite new animal babies grow up from a distance. "Constantly we're thinking 'the visitors should be watching them live'," Kaspari told *Die Welt*. "We don't want the little pandas to be grown up by the time we finally reopen." ## Grim Harvest It's still unclear what exactly this barbaric feeding regimen would look like. But zoos are bleeding money, as monthly costs such as heating tropical enclosures or penguins and seals' daily diet of fresh fish don't magically disappear without any human visitors around. Sadly, some zoo inhabitants appear to be missing their humans. For seals that were usually fascinated by visitors, "for them now it's really boring," Philine Hachmeister, spokeswoman for the Berlin Zoo, told German news agency *DPA*. **READ MORE:** [Coronavirus: German zoo may have to feed animals to each other]() \[*BBC*\] **More on cannibalism:** *[Expert: Coronavirus Forcing Rats to Cannibalism, Infanticide]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()