Red River Zoo Reopens Its Doors

The zoo is operating everyday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

FARGO, N.D.- “I was really excited because I love coming to the zoo,” says Maggie Blair, who’s visiting the Red River Zoo.

Many families in the Fargo-Moorhead area wasted no time to get out as more businesses started to reopen their doors to the public.

“We thought it would be a great idea to just come out and everybody was going stir crazy in the house. It’s kind of windy today, but it’s sunny. We thought we’d wear a mask and come out and see the animals.”

“It’s our first family outing out and we thought we would spend it here at the zoo,” Maggie says.

The Red River Zoo has been working behind the scenes to make sure visitors keep their distance from each other while also enjoying all the zoo has to offer.

‘”We have a maximum capacity of how many people can be in, for the time being. Many of our indoor buildings are closed. We have one way traffic through the zoo to kind of avoid cross traffic of the guests. But, on a sunny day, man is it awesome to see people in the zoo again,” says Sally Jacobson, the Executive Director at the Red River Zoo.

Winter has always been a difficult season for the zoo, but they’re always prepared.

The coronavirus however, was something they were not expecting to be faced with.

“Winter is difficult for us cause the attendance rate goes down. We have events and things like that, but we do have to rely on a line of credit in the winter to get through. And then, Corona hit this spring when all of our school groups would be here, when the educators would be going out to the schools and when people would be renewing their memberships, so it’s tough,” Jacobson says.

Visitors say they’re impressed with the guidelines that the zoo has implemented to keep everyone safe.

“They just said you know, try to wear masks if you can, wash your hands, and then, they’re doing a good job, I guess, keeping rules into place. Showing us what to do.”

Many of the zoo’s buildings like the C

arousel Pavilion will not be open until further notice.