20th February 2008
A cold day at the zoo
I have conflicting thoughts about zoos. I think it’s great that the population of a city can visit a zoo and see animals that they may never otherwise see in their lifetime. I also think a zoo is a great way to educate people about different species of animals, their habitats, threats to their survival and ways to prevent this.
On the other hand, I feel that the animal’s recreated environments should closely reflect that of their individual needs and be as concrete free as possible. I don’t see the need to build enclosures in concrete and with minimal features. It surely is not beneficial for the animal and certainly is not appealing to look at.
With that in mind, I feel that the London Zoo has a little way to come to make its enclosures more appealing to both man and beast. The zoo has clearly grasped this idea as there are several new enclosures, namely the Gorilla’s, a walk in bird enclosure, the Penguin’s (I walked past the old penguin enclosure and was shocked to see that it was all concrete) and the tropical.
I wasn’t sure how new the butterfly enclosure or the bug house was, but these are also along the lines of what I expect from a zoo (the fact that the butterfly enclosure is inside a giant bouncy-castle style caterpillar is brilliant). Seeing butterflies with transparent wings is something of a novelty. Even more so when they land on you and you can see your hand through their wings. Inside the bug house I was suitable impressed with the display of ants near the doors. They do ant things like taking bits of leaves from one area to another via several ropes. It was only after I got close enough to them that I realised that it wasn’t an enclosure as such, you could reach out and touch them if you so desired. I had no desire to do this having seen what happened to my sister when she sat on an ants nest in Australia or my partner when she stood on an ants nest in Costa Rica.
Whether its butterflies or bugs you’re into, both are worth looking at.
If you’re at the zoo on a cold day, make sure you swing past the Tropical Rain Forest enclosure (maybe more than once depending on how cold it is). The highlights for me were the two, two or three toed sloths (I’d seen them in the wild in Costa Rica also much to my excitement). And by the time we got down to ground level, the “tropical rain storm” had come and they were both sopping wet. What a funny sight!
The drawback of being at the zoo on a cold day is that while you walk around thinking how good it is to be in a warm place, either your coat or the tropical enclosure, a lot of the animals are having similar thoughts and are either inside keeping warm or being very brave and venturing out briefly. I would suspect that visiting the zoo during warmer months is more a productive animal seeing experience and better if you have young ones in tow.
An inside enclosure where the animals can’t hide (apart from the camouflaged ones) is the snake house. They have their very own heated rooms! I always enjoy a good look at snakes, venomous, non-venomous, big and small. Probably due to coming from a country which is snake free. I’m a big kid at heart really. Also, that scene from the first Harry Potter is filmed there, if you’re into visiting movie sights.
My advice, try going in the warmer months.
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