Zoo Of The Week (2)
What is the point of a zoo?
Surely, we have evolved sufficiently enough not to take delight in gawping at mangy creatures incarcerated against their will? Of course, zoos do good work in protecting and preserving endangered species but surely this is better done in the creatures’ natural environment.
I was pondering these questions after reading a story this week about Mahmoud Sarhan’s visit to Cairo’s International Garden municipal park. His interest was piqued by a couple of zebras on display. Something didn’t quite look right. Zebras have rounded ears but these two had long floppy ears. Instead of clean stripes these animals had smudgy stripes and unusual smudges on their faces.
As is the way these days, Mahmoud posted a picture on social meejah and an almighty stushie has broken out with accusations that the zoo had painted a couple of donkeys to look like, at least from a distance, like zebras, an accusation the director of the benighted establishment, Mohamed Sultan, vigorously denied.
It wouldn’t be the first time this sort of sleight of hand has been deployed by a zoo. In 2009 a zoo in Gaza tried the same trick while in 2012 another zoo in Gaza put stuffed animals on display because there was a shortage of the real things. Meanwhile in China a zoo in Henan province tried to pass off a Tibetan mastiff dog as a lion and another in Guangxi province was reduced to displaying blow-up plastic penguins.
Best to give them all a miss.
