Zoo Animals August 16, 2016

[Martin Hash]

My wife, Gwynne, and I love to go to zoos. If you don't like zoos, tough, stop reading...

We have gone to zoos all around the world. The amazing thing is that most people never see these animals up close except in zoos: even people in Africa go to zoos for the same reason. Plus, without zoos protecting genetic diversity, many animal species would be terribly at risk. But all those things aside, we just like being in zoos, and as added satisfaction, there's a sense of accomplishment when we see a species of animal we've never seen before.

I've seen enough zoos such that I can rank them, well, from the bottom up anyway. We've seen zoos in such abysmal repair that it's a wonder the zoo can continue to exist at all, with the Jos Zoo in Nigeria being the absolute worst zoo ever. But still, many, many Jos children will never see animals from their own continent up close & alive except in that zoo, so it's still a net gain.

Dead Owl.JPG

Animals lying dead in their enclosures, like the owl we saw hanging upside down by one talon in the Yerevan zoo in Armenia, leave an eerie feeling of loss. Then there are the zoos that have inexplicable exhibits, like dilapidated stuffed animals in wind-blown cages that were the original inhabitants but died decades ago, only to be preserved in such a surrealistic state, like at Gatorland, Florida. Equally bizarre, are empty cages with signs on the front that say what animal used to live in that enclosure but have since died, with the sign as a memorial which we saw at the Folsom Zoo in California. There was even a sign on a monkey enclosure giving instructions what to do in case you witnessed the occupant having a seizure.

Epilepic Monkey Sign.JPG

Zoo Signs 1.jpg

Dead Hawk Sign.JPG