If you have plans to visit your favorite animal friends today, you'll have to make new arrangements. According to Buttonwood Park Zoo's Facebook, the zoo will be unexpectedly closed on Feb. 5. A two-toed sloth looks on curiously as a woman walks her dog in a cart past a Buttonwood Park Zoo poster in New Bedford.

A 21-year-old harbor seal at Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford, named Blue, died last week from highly pathogenic avian influenza, known as avian flu or bird flu. Diagnostic testing on Blue showed that he died from complications from the virus,