Coronavirus has shut down operations in many parts of the U.S. Including our schools, businesses, gyms, and our favorite tourist attractions.
But just because the visitors aren’t stopping by the Texas State Aquarium, doesn’t mean the animals don’t need tending to.
Zookeepers are working just as hard to take care of their animals.
And since there aren’t any visitors at these zoos, the animals get to come out and play a little more.
Some animal species are getting to have their very own playdates with species they’ve never met before.
Chico, a 3-year-old sloth, is sort of a celebrity at the Texas State Aquarium.
He recently got the VIP treatment at the aquarium which is temporarily closed.
He got a tour of the facility where he got to meet some new animal friends as a part of the aquarium’s animal enrichment program.
“Besides making for some fin-tastic photo ops, these animal interspecies meetups are just one of the many ways we are ‘closed but still caring’ during the COVID-19 situation,” the aquarium staff told Bored Panda.
“Along with enrichment opportunities for our animals, our staff is still busy at work preparing meals for and feeding the animals, maintaining their habitats, and looking after their medical care, to name just a few tasks.”
The Texas State Aquarium says that they often bring their animals on play dates with other animals since it “helps keep them active in body and mind.” Chico got to meet all sorts of animals at the aquarium during his tour.
He met some ducks, seahorses, a shark, and lots of colorful fish.
Chico seemed pretty impressed by the jellyfish.
But there was a certain set of animals who were overjoyed by Chico’s presence.
“As some of our most popular animals, it seemed an obvious choice for our sloths and dolphins to get a chance to see each other while we were temporarily closed. We have another sloth, Xena, but on that day, she was more interested in sleeping than meeting the dolphins!” aquarium officials told Bored Panda.
The dolphins, who are named Shadow, Kai, Liko, and Schooner, are used to these kinds of meet and greets.
They’ve met baby alligators, an African serval, a red-tailed boa, and lots of other animals.
And they love it.
“They’re almost always very curious about the other Aquarium residents,” the aquarium staff said.
But when they met Chico, they were nose over fin for him.
They were super curious about Chico and that curiosity quickly turned to excitement.
The smiles on their faces were undeniable.
They swam right up to Chico to get a good look and kept swimming back and forth near him.
They showed him some cool swim moves and even swam upside down to try and imitate Chico’s upside down hang.
It was all insanely adorable.
Chico’s reaction wasn’t quite as reciprocal.
“In true sloth fashion, Chico was pretty sleepy when we brought him to our underwater view to meet the dolphins, but he did open his eyes a few times to check them out,” the aquarium’s Seamus McAfee told Insider.
The aquarium says they’re trying to share as many fun stories like these in order to keep their guests and viewers engaged and educated while everyone is home in quarantine. You can check out Chico’s entire tour of the aquarium in the video below.
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