Run, Lola, Run

"I'm a zookeeper - if you see me running, try to keep up." - Unknown

After years of working in zoos, I've become a connoisseur of the different kind of events that the zoo can host, which I mainly classify as to how much of an impact they will have on the animals (and, by extension, me).  Beer festivals tend to have loud music which, depending on its location in the zoo, can have either a negligible or major impact - the trick is to place the speakers in a place/aim them in a direction where they do no harm.  Holiday lights seem to have surprisingly little impact.  Halloween events can be hit or miss - animals seem indifferent to most costumed attendees, but may startle or balk at others, especially those that are large, elaborate, or have moving parts.

One event that can be especially annoying?  Races.

Races require lots of outdoor space and good paths, so zoos, especially those located in city parks, are prime locations for them.  They are short in duration, but the impact on the animals can be startling.

It makes sense when you realize that most animals really do not run for fun.  They run to chase things, or if they are being chased.  Also, in the eyes of many zoo animals, we are predators.  So when the animals see a massive wall of humans running in one direction, they can either assume they are being chased, or that there is something scary enough coming that all of the humans are terrified enough to stampede away, and as such, they should be afraid too.

I've worked in one zoo that was free admission and located in a city park, so we got lots of early morning joggers.  One or two never seemed to bother the animals.  But when a big group came through, you could track their progress from the other end of the zoo based on which animals were alarm calling at any given point.

Races tend to be short and infrequent enough that you can't easily habituate the animals to them the way you could other stressors.  We try to plan things out by setting race routes to avoid animals that will be especially sensitive or irritable about racing.  For those animals that still react - well, I try to rationalize it that, while briefly alarming, the joggers are encouraging vigilance behavior, alarm calling, and other natural behaviors in the animals, so as long as no one is too stressed, it does no real harm.