Zoos ensure food supplies and provide extra care for animals

The park has also been placing the bamboo shoots in cold storage to extend their shelf life, adds Yu.

While feeding the pandas was affected in the early days of the lockdown, the park is now able to feed them regularly, Yu says, although the park's breeding project with the panda base in Sichuan has been suspended due to the outbreak.

Caring for the pandas at the Shanghai park has not been affected by the lockdown. Yu says the four caretakers of the pandas have been living in the park since close-loop management was imposed there in mid-March. The caretakers have also taken measures to ensure that the pandas are not infected by the virus. For example, all food provided to the pandas, including bamboo shoots, apples and oranges, is carefully examined and cleaned before feeding. The panda enclosure is also cleaned and disinfected at least twice every week.

"We also record what the pandas eat every day, and weigh them every 10 days," Yu says. "Moreover, the keepers have been told to talk to the pandas and pretend to be tourists so that there is a semblance of normalcy despite these quiet times when there are no visitors to the park."

Since last month the park has been showing the panda enclosure over livestreaming on Douyin at 9 am every day.