Tease the Animals

[Martin Hash]

Chengdu Zoo 4.JPG

My wife, Gwynne, and I go to zoos all over the world. We look forward to it and consider no visit to a nation complete without at least visiting one zoo & one McDonald's. We took the opportunity to fulfill both goals, one right after the other, in the big tourist city of Chengdu, home of the Giant Pandas.

Chengdu Zoo 1.JPG

Chengdu Zoo is located in the heart of the city. It is medium-sized, clean & busy for anytime, let alone a Monday morning. We examined the map to see if there was anything unique that we hadn't seen before in other zoos, and were pleased to see a large goldfish exhibit, which is something new to us. The 1000s of goldfish were very popular with the children feeding them, and there were dozens of aquariums with exotic breeds, some of which were unfamiliar. I wondered how often the tanks were cleaned?

Chengdu Zoo 2.JPG

Goldfish were a good start and the path led into the Children's zoo which contained a small amusement park. The penguins, Gwynne's favorite, were located there, and she bought a bamboo fishing-pole with a bit of fish attached to the line for the seals to jump up and eat: first time we'd seen that. We also rode a small peddle-car on the overhead monorail that had push-buttons that turned on American rap music, also very strange & exhilarating.

Chengdu Zoo 5.JPG

What's distressful about Chinese zoos are the visitors. They knock on the enclosure windows & yell at the animals. They also tease the bears with apple cores, and taunt the monkeys with strings of beads. They smoke, throwing the butts on the ground, and the floor of the snack bar was littered with dirty diapers even though trashcans were convenient. I guess this kind of behavior is tolerated because a cleaning lady with a thatch broom jostled and barked at me to lift my feet so she could sweep under our table even though there were plenty of empty tables that needed cleaning. I think the wrong animals are caged in Chinese zoos.