Rosamond Gifford Zoo, Friends group discuss pandemic operations

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Nearly a year after it reopened following the first couple months of the pandemic, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo is focused on improvements and welcoming its visitors. 

It’s an Onondaga County facility that operates at 1 Conservation Place in Syracuse on the City’s west side. The zoo works with its nonprofit partner, the Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo on projects and matters pertaining to the zoo’s operations.

The zoo can currently accommodate visitors at 50 percent capacity with a reservation, Ted Fox, executive director of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, tells CNYBJ.

The reservation system separates the visitors throughout the day. People remember when the doors opened at 10 a.m. in the past, and 50 people or perhaps 200-400 people were waiting outside to get in. 

“We just totally wanted to avoid that, obviously, that’s why we implemented the reservation system,” says Fox.

The Rosamond Gifford Zoo on May 23, 2020 was the first zoo in New York state to reopen after the initial pandemic closures.

The Friends organization works to support the zoo’s mission and take care of the animals that are under the zoo’s care, says Carrie Large, executive director of Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo.

“We fundraise and create funds so we can accomplish that mission,” says Large, who joined Fox for the CNYBJ phone interview on May 7. 

It was among the many organizations nationwide that needed financial help in the early months of the pandemic. When the funding was made available, the federal government awarded the Friends organization two Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgivable loans, including one that totaled more than $256,000. 

“We’re very thankful that [with that] PPP loan, we were able to keep the staff on to keep our mission still moving forward,” says Large. 

Employees

Under normal circumstances, the Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo would have about 100 employees for the summer season, including a mix of full-time and part-time workers, but as of May 7, it’s operating with about 40 employees, according to Large.

The staff shortfall stems from difficulty finding workers to fill openings.

“We’re the same as everybody else. We’re having a hard time finding people, so the way that we’re doing it right now is really cross training, so people are going to be able to work in our courtyard kiosk, or work in the gift shop, or work in our membership desk,” says Large.

Also as of May 7, the zoo has about 33 full-time employees and 13 or 14 part-time workers compared to a normal time of year when it would be at 38 to 40 full-time positions and between 25 and 35 part-time employees. 

“We’re having trouble filling spots right now,” says Fox. “We’re down significantly in our part-time employees.” 

Fox went on to note that, in the past, the zoo has tried to develop new part-time employees through an internship program with area colleges and universities. 

“Last year, we couldn’t have any of the interns here, so we’ve lost a year of having that pool to pull from,” Fox added. 

In the early days of the pandemic, the zoo’s employees separated into two groups that didn’t interact in person to avoid any potential spread of the virus and to guarantee that employees would be available to care for the animals.

“For the Friends side, it was working from home at the beginning of the pandemic. Everyone was working hard on getting remote access, being able to still communicate with the community and still giving them that experience at the zoo … now, it can be a little bit of hybrid … you can still work from home,” says Large.

Projects 

Even as the pandemic required adjustments, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo has been focused on some improvement projects, including one on the zoo’s café. 

“We’ll be renovating it to be a very fast, healthy, family-friendly experience,” says Large. 

It’s currently called the Jungle Café, but the zoo plans to rename the eatery and the new name is still to be determined, she added.

The Friends organization is handling the project, and Large anticipates the revamped café will be open by the end of the summer.

The zoo’s diversity of birds aviary had been closed since March 2020 but reopened May 1. Zoo officials used the interim time to do some work in that aviary. 

“We’ve done a lot more planting in there. We painted. We’ve done a lot of refreshing in there, in addition to some new birds,” says Fox.

Another part of the zoo, called Adaptations, a nocturnal area, had also been closed since last March. It also recently reopened after some refurbishing and repainting, according to Fox. Another area of the zoo, the cave, is going to remain closed for a while longer because officials are removing two aquariums. 

The animal health-center project, which the Rosamond Gifford Zoo broke ground on last September, remains on track to open this summer, says Fox. It’s a project that the zoo has been planning for and working toward for about 15 years, he notes.

“With the health center, we’re pairing up with the county to make sure that we put all the equipment that they need to be able to do animal health checks [along with] any kind of surgery that they might potentially have to do,” adds Large.

The Friends organization has embarked on a capital campaign to make sure it has funding to secure all those pieces, she says.