The zookeepers who usually feed bloodsicles and carcasses to the big cats at the National Zoo are now offering baby food and broth, keeping vigils over the sick animals and checking their coughs.

       Big Cat Mountain is now Big Cat Covid Unit.

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       And it’s all our fault.

       Our collectively sloppy and political response to the coronavirus has allowed it to run rampant and evolve, killing more than 689,000 Americans and counting, as our hospitals fill up with the stubbornly unvaccinated.

       And now we get to see a herd of the biggest carnivores in D.C. suffer, too.

       The big cats of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo are lethargic and refusing to eat meat as they battle the virus they contracted from humans.

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       The six lions and three tigers that tested positive at the zoo two weeks ago possibly got it from a human who was asymptomatic, vaccinated and had a breakthrough case, said Pamela Baker-Masson, associate director of communications and exhibits at the zoo.

       Lions and tigers at National Zoo infected with coronavirus

       It wasn’t even from radical, anti-mask visitors like the ones in other parts of the country who attacked an ice cream scooper, a laundromat attendant, flight attendants, a bowling alley manager, a bank manager and teachers, among others, when they were asked to mask up.

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       Sure, there are clear-cut bad guys in this stupidly divisive issue — hospitals right now are largely filled with anti-vaxxers.

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       But this latest variant of the virus is so pernicious, even the folks who are following all the rules could be transmitters.

       “The transmission issue is complex,” Baker-Masson said. “The zoo conducted a thorough investigation of all staff that were in proximity to the lions and tigers. There is no evidence to pinpoint the source of the infection. While it is possible the infection was transmitted by an asymptomatic carrier, it has been standard practice for all animal care staff and essential staff to mask indoors in all public and non-public areas.”

       So a possible transmitter was someone who was careful, who was vaccinated and who was asymptomatic.

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       That’s the conclusion the folks at the Bronx Zoo reached when seven of their cats developed covid-19. All of them have since recovered.

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       “Our cats were infected by a staff person who was asymptomatically infected with the virus or before that person developed symptoms,” Bronx Zoo officials said last year.

       And that’s terrifying because it could be any of us who are going back to the movies, to baseball games, to the theater, to work and to school.

       In the past week, I went into about a dozen stores where I was the only one masked. And I went to three performances — in Maryland, Virginia and New York — where I had to show a vaccination card to get in.

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       I have a neighbor who isn’t vaccinated, survived an early case of covid-19 and nearly died when he was recently reinfected. He’s still in the hospital. I also have an acquaintance who got immunized, got a booster shot and still got the virus. He’s still in the hospital, too.

       Move over, Florida Man. Maryland man is coming.

       We’re all over the place, people. Masking isn’t over. Sanitizing isn’t over. This thing isn’t over.

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       The head of the Smithsonian is requiring that all employees be vaccinated by Nov. 22. The zoo is also going to begin vaccinating animals with Zoetis, the vaccine made for them.

       More zoos across the country are beginning to do this because humans have gone beyond infecting our family, friends and neighbors. Zoo animals in New York, Virginia, Atlanta and San Diego have also been infected.

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       Imagine how hard it is on the zookeepers who are so close to the animals, who suffer when just one of them is ailing.

       I was at the big-cat exhibit right before the cats tested positive, reporting for a future column, and it’s easy to see the bond the zookeepers have with their animals. They knew exactly how Jeffrey the porcupine was going to act as they offered him squash, nuts and corn. (Jeffrey was offended by the squash, as they predicted.)

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       And they knew Nikita the tiger’s sad roar, which I witnessed that day — more of a moan, really — was because she was “cycling.” Though, in hindsight, the dispassionate call to passion may have been because she was sick.

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       Within two days of that morning I spent with them, the staff learned that nine of their big beasts were infected in the global pandemic.

       The zookeepers are exhausted these days. They’re worried and watching every yawn, roll, cough and chuff from the big cats, who have been lethargic and uninterested in their usual meat slabs.

       Zoo nutritionists added baby food, chicken broth, goat cheese and elk meat — stinky foods that might be more enticing to them — to their diet.

       And the keepers, janitors and veterinarians are dressed in protective gear similar to the stuff health-care workers wear as they treat the unvaccinated humans who are flooding local hospitals.

       Those humans had the choice to do the right thing. These big cats didn’t.

       Twitter: @petulad

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