A fire had broken out, putting Big Bear in its path and the small crew at the Big Bear Alpine Zoo on high alert. As zookeepers monitored the news and checked the weather, the sky darkened and the air turned putrid with the smell of smoke.
“We decided within 24 hours we were going to move forward with evacuating,” zoo Curator Jessica Whiton recalled about that September day.
That decision meant that small animals and birds — who are too vulnerable to bad air quality — would need to be loaded into crates and put on standby for evacuation to a safer place down the mountain. Larger animals could stay in air-conditioned and filtered buildings, but if the situation worsened they would need to leave their alpine home.
Which left the question: What would the zoo do with its larger and older animals like 26-year-old grizzly bear siblings Ayla and Harley if they too had to leave?
These are the kind of questions that Southern California zoos and aquariums grapple with in times of fires or other emergencies.
From the Big Bear zoo in the San Bernardino Mountains to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, officials craft intricate plans to evacuate their animals. Though a mystery to guests, employees practice over and over how to get animals inside crates or — in the aquarium’s case — into water tanks on wheels to whisk them to safety at the sign of potential danger.
For the Big Bear Lake zoo, that danger came Sept. 5, when a wildfire sparked in Highland quickly spread through the San Bernardino National Forest. The Line fire wound its way through the mountains, jumping to more than 20,000 acres in three days and heading toward Big Bear and the zoo.
The Big Bear Alpine Zoo, opened in 1959, houses about 100 alpine species that would naturally make their home in the mountain clime. Most of its animals are rescued from the wild after being deemed unable to survive on their own following injury or sickness.
The zoo has to keep several potential disasters in mind, Whiton said. Animals have been evacuated or moved to behind-the-scenes facilities several times in recent years when the mountain experienced wildfires and severe winter storms.
Zoos and aquariums are required by the state and accrediting organizations to have an evacuation and safety plan in case of emergencies — from extreme weather to other disasters.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a non-profit independent accrediting institution, mandates detailed plans and drills throughout the year. It represents more than 235 facilities in the United States and overseas, with 21 of those accredited zoos or aquariums in California. Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is a member, while the Santa Ana Zoo in Orange County and the Big Bear zoo are on track to join.
Sarah Fedele, vice president of communications for the association, said that along with drills the institutions must have a communication system, fire extinguishers, trained staff and a written plan for first aid, health emergencies and first responders.
Since 2025 began, California has had 331 wildfires burning almost 58,000 acres, according to Cal Fire. The Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles County were pushed by high winds reaching more than 40 mph and devastated communities weeks ago. During the same time period in 2024, California saw 141 wildland fires and 76 acres burned.
When the need to evacuate arises, many zoos and aquariums have partnerships with other facilities to house evacuated animals.
To assess fire danger, Big Bear zoo staff check Watch Duty, an app that tracks fires, and take recommendations from law enforcement and fire officials, Whiton said. Evacuating all its animals would take about two hours.
In September, as soon as the air quality took a turn, employees put other facilities on stand by, placed smaller animals in kennels and pulled them inside where there were HVAC systems.
The staff caravanned down the mountain in four vans with 50 animals to The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert.
“They got new enclosures for a week and a half, and then once we were clear the fire, we came back up,” Whiton said.
The zoo has several partners throughout Southern California that will accept evacuated animals, Whiton said, including the Living Desert and San Bernardino County Animal Care.
Meanwhile, the Santa Ana Zoo is an evacuation point for the Orange County Zoo in Irvine Regional Park, which has been threatened by several past wildfires.
The Santa Ana Zoo, which opened in 1952 and stretches across 20 acres, houses roughly 200 animals in its urban setting just off the 5 Freeway. Its location means wildfires are not much of a concern, making it a safe space for evacuees from other zoos.
The Orange County Zoo evacuated 130 animals to the Santa Ana Zoo in 2020, when two fires erupted in Orange County, sandwiching the park. The Orange County Zoo transferred bears, mountain lions, and smaller animals to the zoo, Santa Ana Zoo Director Ethan Fisher said.
Preparing one’s zoo to take another facility’s animals can be challenging, Fisher said.
“But as long as you’re consistent in training and thinking about it, you can still apply that logic,” Fisher said.
The zoo has also worked with the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center, a rehabilitation center in Huntington Beach, to evacuate water birds during Hurricane Hilary in 2023.
Of course, water-dwelling animals also could find themselves in danger.
The Aquarium of the Pacific has about 18,000 specimens of about 750 species, a diverse collection with diverse needs. The aquarium is nestled on the coast of Long Beach, further removed from fire hazards. But the facility is susceptible to dangerous weather and earthquakes.
In an emergency, the aquarium has understandings with other facilities to take its animals as long as the venues are not also affected, Nate Jaros, vice president of animal care, said. Animals would be moved based on a priority list, with endangered animals going first.
The aquarium runs emergency drills several times a year. Brett Long, vice president of animal care, said the facility practices for weather emergencies, natural disasters and animal-related emergencies such as an animal escaping.
Aquarium animals are coaxed into portable tanks the same way a zoo gets its animals voluntarily into carriers.
This usually works, he said. For those on whom it doesn’t, the team drains some water from the aquarium so divers can go in and guide the animal into the transport.
To move animals, the aquarium uses tanks with specialized filtration systems to control oxygen levels that can be placed on larger trucks or vans.
Employees have to think about animals’ needs, Jaros said. For example, some sharks need to move continuously to ensure water is pumping across their gills for oxygenation, while other sharks will rest on the bottom of the tank and pump water across their gills.
“We have a lot of interesting technology, cameras and water sensors that can be relayed to, like, a cell phone,” Jaros said.
The technology allows aquarium staff to track oxygen levels and the water temperature, he said.
The aquarium’s first choice is to keep animals where they are. The facility has staff 24 hours a day and an emergency generator that can run for roughly a week to maintain equipment, Jaros said.
If animals can stay on site they can be moved into holding tanks behind the scenes, Jaros said. The largest such tank is 40 feet in diameter, Jaros said.
Much like the aquarium, the Big Bear zoo has found that the best decision is to keep animals in their home zoo as long as possible.
Whiton, the Big Bear zoo official, said there are more logistics involved in transferring larger animals. Also, moving older animals can be stressful — particularly if the zoo had to sedate them.
Employees work with larger animals to voluntarily enter transportation kennels using positive reinforcement training. Even with this training, larger and older animals, including grizzly and black bears, have mobility issues that make sitting in crates for long periods of time uncomfortable, she said.
During the fall fire, Ayla and Harley and other larger animals were pulled into buildings in the back of their enclosures where the zoo had full electricity and was prepared with backup generators and air scrubbers, Whiton said.
Zoo staff aren’t just responsible for zoo animals but also wildlife brought in by the public and others for the staff to rehabilitate and release.
During the fall fire, the zoo was rehabilitating a hawk but released it back to the wild a few days early. The hawk had its strength back and could hunt so they felt comfortable letting it go, Whiton said.
Every member of the facility’s staff has a part to play, from guest services dealing with the public to an animal care person working with animals, said Brett Long, vice president of animal care at the aquarium.
“I mean, I think big picture is that we have a responsibility to these animals and a civic duty to have a safe work environment and to be prepared,” Long said.