Tigers, lions, chimpanzees and caged otters crossed a good part of the department in the early hours of Monday evening on the roads of the Gironde and under the bewildered eyes of motorists. That day, the zoo of La Teste-de-Buch, which covers 22 hectares, was threatened by toxic fumes from the fires that had consumed the local forests. By Tuesday afternoon, the site had finally been spared from the fire, which, however, had died down just a few hundred meters from the walls.
Of the zoo’s 850 animals, 370 were transferred to the annex of the Pesak zoo, located about sixty kilometers from the Arcachon Basin. In the shade of trees, the animals arrived drop by drop on Monday evening in this plot of one hundred square meters. “We welcomed the animals that were most easily transported—beasts that were previously asleep, birds, sloths, explains zoo director Mathieu Dunkechin-Dorval…
Source: Le Figaro
