Sink or Swim : Flood at L.A. Zoo Finds Animals Adapting to Water--Fast

As deluges go, this one was not exactly the Johnstown Flood.

But the sudden cascade that sent a sloth bear swimming for its life at the Los Angeles Zoo on Sunday was nothing to slough off, either.

A broken main filled the front of the bear’s compound with six feet of water and sent zoo visitors scurrying for higher ground. The incident left about a third of the animal park without water, sending keepers hurrying for hoses and tank trucks to supply drinking water to about 500 of the zoo’s 1,700 animals.

Officials said it may take until the weekend to repair the 10-inch pipe and restore water service to the Eurasia, South America, aviary and reptile house attractions.

The pipe, about 15 feet underground, burst between the Indian rhinoceros and Barbados sheep compounds. It sent 250,000 gallons of muddy water surging through a concrete walkway and cascading down a hill toward several low-lying animal enclosures.

The water spilled into concrete-lined pits inhabited by Turkomen markhors, orangutans and the hapless sloth bear.

The slow-moving, dimwitted bear was apparently nosing around the bottom of its empty moat looking for bugs to eat when the flood hit. Because it has poor sight and hearing, it did not notice the water until it started filling the moat--which is used to keep animals from climbing out.

“It had to swim to safety,” said Jerry Greenwalt, zoo administrative officer. “The water was about six feet deep down there.”

The orangutans and other animals watched from higher ground as the rushing water dumped mud in their moats and deposited half a foot of silt on the visitor walkway in front of their enclosures. The water quickly receded when zoo workers shut down the water pipe, Greenwalt said.

Although the zoo remained open on Monday, the area between the Indian rhino exhibit and orangutans is expected to be closed until repairs are made and the mud is removed from the walkways, he said.

Three of the zoo’s eight public restrooms were shut. Portable toilets have been brought in for visitors’ use.

Mark Goldstein, the newly hired director of the zoo, said animals will not be affected by the water outage. He said the zoo has long had an emergency plan calling for the use of tanker trucks in case the main water supply fails.

“When I first got here, I said I wanted more waterfalls on the grounds. But not like this,” he quipped.

The pipe failure--the worst ever at the 26-year-old facility--is indicative of problems that have led officials to plan a complete redesign of the zoo, he said.

Coincidentally, the master plan unveiled Monday afternoon calls for a rebuilding of all water, power and sewage lines as part of a $300-million reconstruction.

“This underscores the need to bring the infrastructure up to the level that the professional staff and the collection represents,” Goldstein said. “Obviously, the pipes we have now are not world-class.”

One of the first projects in the 10-year overhaul is expected to be an aquatics exhibit that would include a swimming habitat for bears. Polar bears, that is.

“It would let people see the bears underwater,” Goldstein said.

The sloth bear will not be invited.