Cannibalism could be one consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic we didn’t see coming. Not for humans, but for the animals that depend on humans for survival–zoo animals, strays, and the rodents of our major cities.
By now it’s clear that food shortages are coming to the United States and other parts of the world as a result of COVID-19. Supply chain issues will soon cause shortages of some common staples in grocery stores, and some food producers are already being forced to dump wasted product. We’ve been hearing about and preparing for this for weeks. But the impact of supply chain issues isn’t limited to people.
On Monday, NBC News reported that rats in major cities could soon start eating each other. CNN reported on Thursday that a German Zoo will soon have to consider its worst case scenario, feeding some of the animals to others to keep the zoo afloat.
Zoos prepare for the worst
Zoos around the world have shut down to visitors, but their operating costs remain high. “This is an uncertain time for zoos, aquariums, and managed wildlife facilities many of which are reliant on visitation,” the American Zoo and Aquarium All Hazards Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (ZAHP) Fusion Center said in a statement on April 10. “As more businesses close to the public to limit disease spread there is a lot of fear and anxiety about how to move forward.”
US and European zoos are being advised to make financial plans, as they probably won’t be able to reopen for some time. Zoos are large gathering places–perfect breeding grounds for COVID-19 to spread among humans, and unlikely to be allowed to open back up since they aren’t viewed as essential businesses.
Take the Neumünster Zoo in northern Germany, for example. That zoo houses 700 animals from more than 100 species, and they all need to be fed and cared for during the pandemic. The longer stay-at-home orders continue, the more challenging that becomes. The Neumünster Zoo hasn’t had visitors since March 15, when Germany began a national shutdown. Now, the zoo is running on donations alone.
For the Neumünster Zoo, the absolute nightmare scenario is having to euthanize some animals so others won’t starve. They’ve had to seriously consider that option, zoo director Verena Kaspari told a German news service this week. CNN reports that the zoo has made a list of the animals to decide who would be euthanized first.
For city rodents, food has disappeared
It might be harder to care about rats than zoo animals, but vermin are a reality of human existence. In the time of COVID-19, they’re hungry. Urban rodentoloist Bobby Corrigan told NBC news this week that lockdowns around the country will soon mean violence for rat populations. Rats in rural areas and neighborhoods are probably doing just fine, as people are around more and still filling trash cans with food. It’s city rats and rodents who rely on restaurants and public attractions that are suffering.
As the above viral video of rats on an empty Bourbon Street in New Orleans showed in March, vermin will probably become a lot more visible in common weeks as they get hungrier. They’ll also start engaging in fights for remaining scraps of food. When they get really hungry, they’ll start to eat each other.
“It’s just like we’ve seen in the history of mankind, where people try to take over lands and they come in with militaries and armies and fight to the death, literally, for who’s going to conquer that land. And that’s what happens with rats,” Corrigan said. “A new ‘army’ of rats come in, and whichever army has the strongest rats is going to conquer that area.”
It’s not just that rats are gross or that cannibalism is shocking. Rats can carry somewhere around 55 pathogens, though no evidence shows they can host COVID-19. For people without shelter, angry, cannibalistic rats are an added hazard to life in the time of COVID-19.
“What rodents do, they will find food, and they will find water,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a press conference in late March. “That puts our street homeless in dire, dire straits.”
Good news for shelter animals
An unexpected result of nationwide shelter-in-place orders: animal fosters and adoptions are on the rise. Americans looking for companionship are taking in cats and dogs who could otherwise be facing food shortages on the streets.
We’re only beginning to see the widespread impact of COVID-19 and how it could reshape life for people and animals. As the pandemic continues, we’ll continue to see food shortages stretch outside the human realm.
