ASHEBORO, N.C. — It seems pretty obvious.
"We look at barriers in the park pretty much everyday," explains Jennifer Ireland.
She's talking about the barriers that people shouldn't cross while they're at the zoo. Ireland is the Curator of Mammals and has worked at the North Carolina Zoo for 21 years.
"What they’re really looking at is our guests are at these barriers and seeing what’s happening when our guests are there."
WFMY News 2 wanted to take a closer look at barriers after a woman was injured at an Arizona zoo this weekend. Officials say the woman was attacked by a jaguar after she crossed a barrier to take a selfie with the animal. The zoo says she later apologized for breaching the barrier, according to the local CBS 5 affiliate. But that's not the only incident that prompted questions.
"After the Harambe incident happened in the Cincinnati Zoo, we took another look at this [lion] habitat and decided we could do better, make our barriers better to keep it safer for our guests," Ireland says.
She explains they took out a rail that circled around the exhibits glass wall and put up a new rail with more distance and some mesh so kids wouldn't run underneath it. She says all deadly and dangerous like lions and polar bears have that dual protection, although it's not necessarily a requirement.
"Everything is wrong about the idea that animals and zoos are tame. Because they’re not. They’re all wild animals," she explains.
Other enclosures will have one layer of protection, which Ireland says guests are supposed to respect.
To learn more about zoo rules, click here.
