No guests means no revenue for the non-profit, but staff and donors are helping to keep hope alive and care for the more than 1,000 animals at the facility.
But it has been difficult for the animal park and wildlife sanctuary, which is dependent on guests coming to the zoo and events such as school tours and birthday parties, for revenue to meet its maintenance bill.
“A lot of people don’t realise how expensive it is on a daily basis to run a zoo,” said Brown, as he spoke about one of the zoo’s biggest expenses – providing food for the animals, comprising hundreds of birds, more than 100 mammals and 500 reptiles, including 300 Jamaican iguanas, part of the park’s conservation and research Head Start Programme for the Critically Endangered Jamaican Iguana.
Just on a weekly basis, these two lions are going through about $30,000/$40,000 worth of meat, and that’s just two animals out of 1,000,” said Brown.
“We do receive some very helpful funding from the Government, but everything else to keep the zoo running on a daily basis, feeding over 1,000 animals, is from guests coming.
