The first thing Izzy Wheatley hears when she wakes up in the morning is the sound of penguin chicks squeaking.

The 20-year-old zoo keeper moved into Paradise Park—a zoo in the southwestern British county of Cornwall—just before the U.K. went into lockdown to stem the spread of Covid-19. She had been living with her parents, but last month joined three of her colleagues to hunker down with the army of animals that call the 14-acre park home.

The two penguin chicks sleep in her bedroom and she hand feeds them hourly through the day while juggling other duties, including feeding otters and exercising eagles, vultures and hawks. “I constantly smell of whisked-up fish,” she said. She makes a pretend beak with her hand to disguise the syringe used for feeding the penguins.

Ms. Wheatley moved into the zoo because the park was concerned about not having enough staff if some were forced to self-isolate due to contact with sick family members. She also worried about contracting the virus at the park and then infecting her parents.

The zoo can host crowds of hundreds daily, but is currently closed to the public. Still, it costs over £1,500 ($1,875) a week to feed the nearly 1,200 animals including penguins, parrots, birds of prey, red pandas, goats, otters and red squirrels. Ms. Wheatley’s pay hasn’t changed, but she is encouraged to keep track of overtime in case the zoo can eventually pay her for the extra hours.