As everyone is largely confined to their respective homes, it’s easy to focus on how social distancing is affecting our own relationships and forget that animals are similarly impacted by the sudden absence of humans in their lives.
The spotted garden eels at Tokyo’s Sumida Aquarium, for example, are used to seeing crowds of humans when they poke their heads out of the sand. Since the aquarium’s closure at the beginning of March, however, the fish see very few, and aquarium staff are concerned that they are forgetting what humans look like.
