Flamingos at a Florida Zoo Rode Out Hurricane Isaias in the Bathroom

The big snakes had been coiled into trash cans. The male billy goats were holed up in the rabbit exhibit. But it was the flamingos of ZooWorld in Panama City Beach, Fla., who would ultimately become overnight celebrities after a video posted on social media during Hurricane Isaias made the rounds. It has been viewed nearly 2 million times. The 30 flamingos, honking and frolicking, were sheltering in a bathroom, bumbling between the sink and the stalls, shedding pink feathers onto a grippy floor mat. The crew included Mr. Sparklepants, 10, the largest and most dominant of the flock. Scuttle and Mango Shrimproll, both 3, who had been raised by a ZooWorld zookeeper since they were eggs, were also there. The cramped quarters for the pink birds were necessary to protect them from ferocious winds that threatened the enclosure where they normally sleep. So the flock of flamingos, known as a flamboyance, was ushered into the bathroom, whose block walls served as something of a fortress. A mirror provided entertainment — the birds, seeing other flamingos in the reflection, began showing off. Before Isaias made landfall on Friday, Kylie Appleton, the senior zookeeper, took a video, and then the team boarded up the door. Erika Newell, the zoo’s chief operating officer, spent Friday night in an apartment on the grounds, waking up every hour as the storm lashed the Gulf Coast to check on all the animals. Crammed as they were, the flamingos were in the perfect spot, she said. The tight space calmed them down, much like a snug garment might calm a dog. The scene evoked the memory of a photo taken at a Miami zoo during Hurricane Andrew, the devastating Category 5 hurricane that struck South Florida in 1992. Ms. Newell is part of a network that provides support to zoos, aquariums and sanctuaries during catastrophes such as natural disasters. Since Ms. Newell started working with ZooWorld in 2017, she and the creatures have weathered a number of storms, including Michael, the Category 5 hurricane that brought devastation to the Florida panhandle in 2018. “You just have to say, ‘Well, I either get these animals inside or they don’t make it,’” she said. “So you find a way to get those animals inside and you get very, very creative.”