Drusillas Park battled through the night to help the animals amid storm power cut

The zoo near Alfriston experienced a power cut on Monday, February 21, after Storm Franklin hit the area on Sunday night (February 20).

Drusillas Park said it has been forced to remain closed for a second day, which is the longest power cut the zoo has experienced in the last few decades.

A spokesperson from the zoo said, “The park’s estate team have been pulling shifts through the night to ensure vital backup generators have enough petrol to power crucial heaters in animal enclosures.

“Keepers are working around the clock, donning head torches to navigate the zoo’s now dark working areas to keep animals fed, watered, and cared for – some have even taken to cuddling animals to keep them warm.”

Fallen trees and debris hit the attraction after Storm Eunice on Friday, February 18, and the park said its team were still working to clear and rebuild the damage over the weekend.

Head keeper Gemma Romanis said, “In preparation for Storm Eunice on Friday, we took a number of our animals inside to protect them.

“On Saturday, we worked from very early in the morning to remove and rebuild the damage, and were able by Sunday to settle our animals such as lemurs and squirrel monkeys back into their public enclosures.

“We’ve been multi-tasking, helping the estate team, carrying tree trunks, building fences, you name it – there was so much to fix it became all hands on deck to try and get the park fit for the public again.

“Just when we thought we’d got on top of it, the power cut hit on Monday morning and everyone had to dive in again.

“We aren’t able to heat all the zoo enclosures at once with the generators, so we had to plan some tactical animal move-arounds to get those that need heat into the areas we could keep warm.

“We were most concerned about our reptiles, armadillos, anteaters, and sloths – especially with the infant sloth who is just a few months old, who would be in considerable danger if she couldn’t keep warm.”

The head keeper said along with the issue of heating, electric fences also went down which created the risk of animals escaping - although fortunately the backup batteries kicked up.

With 800 animals at the zoo, priority when the power failed was to ensure the correct temperatures and conditions could be maintained for each of the exotic species, to limit any stress that could cause serious health concerns or potential death.