PANAMA CITY BEACH, Florida – The big snakes had been coiled into trash cans. The male billy goats were holed up in the rabbit exhibit.
But it was the flamingos of ZooWorld in Panama City Beach, in the US state of Florida, who would ultimately become overnight celebrities after a video posted on social media during Hurricane Isaias made the rounds. It has been viewed nearly 2 million times.
The 30 flamingos, honking and frolicking, were sheltering in a bathroom, bumbling between the sink and the stalls, shedding pink feathers onto a grippy floor mat.
The crew included Mr. Sparklepants, aged 10, the largest and most dominant of the flock. Scuttle and Mango Shrimproll, both 3, who had been raised by a ZooWorld zookeeper since they were eggs, were also there.
The cramped quarters for the pink birds were necessary to protect them from ferocious winds that threatened the enclosure where they normally sleep. So the flock of flamingos was ushered into the bathroom, whose block walls served as something of a fortress.
Before Isaias made landfall on Oct 9, Kylie Appleton, the senior zookeeper, took a video, and then the team boarded up the door.
Erika Newell, the zoo’s chief operating officer, spent the night on Oct 9 in an apartment on the grounds, waking up every hour as the storm lashed the Gulf Coast to check on all the animals.
Crammed as they were, the flamingos were in the perfect spot, she said. The tight space calmed them down, much like a snug garment might calm a dog. NYTIMES
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.