More than 1,000 animals live at the 65-acre zoo, including elephants, giraffes, primates, flamingos, alligators, extinct-in-the-wild Panamanian golden frogs and rare red wolves. For now, ZooTampa is well within Milton’s projected path. It lies less than 10 miles from Tampa’s waterfront, where storm surge was expected to exceed 10 feet.

By Rich McKay (Reuters) -As millions of people were under evacuation orders along Florida's Gulf Coast, the African elephants, Caribbean flamingos, pigmy hippos and about 1,000 other animals are riding out the monstrous Hurricane Milton at Tampa's zoo.

"Nothing bothers them," Burns said, even as Hurricane Milton is described by forecasters as a catastrophic and potentially deadly storm. She said there was no need to put animals in trailers and haul them to other zoos or sanctuaries.