The staff at Mogo Wildlife Park stayed behind to protect roughly 200 animals as the Clyde Mountain fire approached on New Year’s Eve 2019. Smaller animals such as red pandas and monkeys were moved into homes, while lions, tigers, gorillas and orangutans were kept in protected night dens. The park later reported that every animal survived, according to ABC News. The fire reached the Mogo area on December 31 due to extreme conditions that spread across Australia's New South Wales South Coast. An evacuation order was issued for the town at about 6 a.m., but zoo director Chad Staples and his staff decided to activate the park’s fire-defence plan instead of leaving the animals behind.
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