BERLIN — The polar bear would be the last to go.

So says a zoo in northern Germany, which drew up a startling contingency plan if the financial strain caused by the government-ordered shutdown because of the coronavirus outbreak did not ease up soon:

Slaughter some zoo animals and feed them to others.

The director of the zoo, Tierpark Neumünster, about an hour’s drive north of Hamburg, told the German news agency DPA that such measures would be carried out only as a last resort.

“If — and this is really the worst, worst case of all — if I no longer have any money to buy feed, or if it should happen that my feed supplier is no longer able to deliver due to new restrictions, then I would slaughter animals to feed other animals,” the director, Verena Kaspari, was quoted as saying.

No information was available on which animals would be slaughtered first and which would be saved under the plan. Ms. Kaspari could not be immediately reached for comment. But the zoo, which has about 700 animals over 24 hectares, confirmed her comments on Wednesday.

It also said that a prized polar bear named Vitus, called the largest polar bear in Germany and standing nearly 12 feet tall, would be spared until it was the last animal standing.