(Source: www.wwf.org.uk)

We all know that those much maligned flying mammals, the bats, were at the centre of the COVID-19 outbreak. With definitive evidence still proving elusive however, the jigsaw is still incomplete. Did the bats, as some experts hypothesise, transmit the disease directly to humans? Or did bats tag-team with an intermediary host—the keratin-armoured pangolin is the most likely suspect for some other experts—who in turn transmitted the infection to humans? The non-experts on the other hand, particularly those in the vicinity of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, cling to an alternative view which sees the coronavirus escaping, either accidentally or deliberately, from a biotech lab in Wuhan – a theory that does not entirely let the much-besmirched bat off the hook as the lab was known to be experimenting with the creatures.

(Source: www.theatlantic.com)

How have other animals, the ones not blamed for the virus outbreak, fared in the time of pandemic? One of the most intriguing developments first reported back in March (seems a long time ago now!) is the curious phenomena of human-to-animal transmission of the virus…a case of the humans fighting back? The Bronx Zoo in New York, in the midst of all the human carnage triggered by the outbreak, reported that nine of their non-human residents had tested positive for COVID-19. Five tigers and four lions—including the animal world’s “patient zero”, a Malayan tiger called Nadia—apparently contracted the disease from an asymptomatic handler. The zoo was closed to the public on 16th March (‘Seven more cats tests positive for coronavirus at Bronx Zoo’, (Natasha Daly), National Geographic,  22-Apr-2020, www.nationalgeographic.com). Since then, some domestic cats and dogs (in Kong Kong and Belgium) have also tested positive for the disease. Veterinarians have said that all of the affected Bronx Zoo felines were expected to recover.

Unfortunately there are concerns for other members of the Felidae family in the US from the novel coronavirus. This involves a bunch (an ‘ambush’?) of tigers at the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma. The Tiger King” zoo, formerly owned by the notorious, and now imprisoned, “Joe Exotic”, recently reopened after the lifting of pandemic precautions. Visitors are now being offered the chance to participate in (pricey) tiger cub petting sessions and the punters are doing so in droves, all day, raising concerns after the Bronx outbreak that the operators are placing the baby felines in distinct danger of the virus (as well as upping the contagion risks for the huge crowds of humans attending)❇ (‘Tigers, humans at risk for coronavirus as ‘Tiger King’ zoo reopens’, (Teresa Bergen), Inhabitat, 12-May-2020, www.inhabitat.com).

(Photo: Getty Images)

The pandemic has resulted in a very different, “feel-good” story concerning the world’s fauna. Twitter is awash with videos of animal sightings in unexpected places. City centres, once teeming with tourists and vendors, are now massively de-peopled due to the lockdowns. These instant “ghost towns” have not gone overlooked in the animal kingdom. All manner of wild fauna have swarmed in to claim the run of the towns, and almost certainly driven to do so in search of food. We have seen penguins waddling through empty Cape Town streets, coyotes roaming through a largely deserted San Francisco, wild boars taking over the Centro of Barcelona and the streets of Bergamo, Italy (probably not the same wild boars), Kashmiri mountain goats nonchalantly strolling through Llandudno (where?) in Wales, and so on and so on (‘Wild Animals have taken over the streets of major cities because of the coronavirus’, (Chris Ciaccia), Fox News , 03-Apr-2020, www.foxnespws.com)✴.

Siberian husky visits Beluga whale  

(Photo: www.wtnh.com)

The most touching coronavirus animal story is the upside from the closure of zoos and aquariums – the opportunity for new animal interactions. During the enforced downtime some zoos are allowing non-dangerous animals (including visits from shelter animals) to roam around the enclosure, coming face-to-glass with other animal inhabitants (‘While aquariums are closed amid the coronavirus, animals get to play.” (Joshua Bote), USA Today News, 04-Apr-2020, www.usatoday.com).

While many zoo residents have experienced loneliness with the disappearance of human visitors, Hong Kong Zoo’s giant panda couple luxuriated in the new privacy so much that they overcame their typical reticence and mated for the first time in a decade (‘Two pandas tried to mate for a decade. With the zoo closed due to coronavirus, they finally did it’, (RW Miller), USA Today News, 08-Apr-2020, www.usatoday.com) 

(Photo: Antony Dickson, AFP/Getty Images)

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❇ cross-contamination back to humans from the tigers has been ruled out by medical experts
✴  some of the alleged sightings of animals have turned out to be bogus claims, such as the myth of Russian President Putin unleashing 500 lions onto Russian streets to ensure people observed lockdown