ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – A lot of places simply shut down Thursday afternoon with the school closing list seemingly going on forever.

But there is one place you can count on to stay open, no matter what the weather is like: the St. Louis Zoo.

“The zoo is open every day except Christmas and New Years and there’s no reason to close the zoo. Animals need to be taken care of,” Vice President of Animal Collections Jack Grisham explained.

Grisham says the zoo does receive a lot of visitors on snow days due to all of the kids who are out of school.

“There’s snow leopards. The Penguin & Puffin Coast is a great place to go,” Grisham said. “On the outside you have the penguins who like the cold weather but on the inside you have the warm building with the rest of the penguins. It’s 45 degrees in there.”

The zoo is open until 5 p.m. The only thing which was not operating today due to the weather is the zoo’s train.