The defeat and the grief in Zoparc Overloon are great. On Monday evening a fire broke out in the stay of the skulls, all six monkeys were killed. Animal caretaker Steven van den Heuvel has been working in the park for ten years and the drama has arrived hard with him. “It’s something you never hope to experience,” he says.
Visibly excited state Steven van den Heuvel on Tuesday at the burned -down monkey stay where the six skulls were sitting. “It’s very sad,” he sighs. “Of course first of all for the animals themselves. But also for all animal carers who are totally powerless losing the animals.”
“Losing six animals in such a way in one go is very bad.”
“You take care of all the animals with heart and soul. We come back in the evening when an animal is sick, we experience births. That is all wonderful. And of course animals that die is sometimes part of it. And we are used to it. But in such a way six animals lose in one go.
The fire broke out on Monday evening around nine o’clock. The park was already closed then. Buren saw flames and called 112. “I was called by my colleague, who had heard it from the fire brigade,” Steven looks back. “When we arrived here, the fire was already extinguished and we could only find that the animals could no longer be saved.”
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The skull monkeys are not always in the inner home. “During the day they go outside anyway and if it is not too cold, they can also choose at night whether they go inside or stay outside,” Steven explains. “But last night it was minus three or minus four and that is too cold for them. That’s why they were nice and warm inside. But that has now had a fatal outcome for them.”
The residence of the monkeys is a piece of the other animals. Yet the animals that are closest to the monkeys in the area have been checked by the animal carers as a precaution. But there are no signals, according to Steven, that something is wrong with them.
“New skull monkeys? That is something of later care”
The question of whether new skull monkeys are coming into the suit is difficult for the animal caretaker to answer. “That is something of later care. We must first assess whether this building can still be saved.” But according to him, the wish is to have skirting monkeys in the park again in the future: “It’s just a very nice and beautiful animal species.”
According to Steven, the cause of the fire is not entirely clear. According to him, the fire brigade has indicated that there are no signals that the fire has been lit. “Probably there has been a short circuit,” he says. “But the fire was so bright that it is difficult to determine that afterwards.”
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