Sleeping Fox

It's fall vacation in Rotterdam, and I've been doing some entertaining. Here's a sleeping fox all curled up in the sun at the Rotterdam Zoo, or Blijberg Diergaarde, a great zoo, if you're into zoos. Four years ago, we had some visitors over from Utah and Michigan, and they said that it was the "best zoo they'd ever been to." The Bronx Zoo in New York is a total fog in my memory, so I'm not sure how it compares to that. It beats the Salt Lake City Zoo, although they do have beloved cougars in captivity. The Netherlands is rich in zoos, all with a slightly different character. I haven't been to all of them, by far.

Before having children, and after growing out of childhood itself, I wasn't much into zoos. They were places where animals were confined to limited, articficial environments, far removed from their original habitats. Certainly it's too cold here for Gorillas, but the zoos here feature animals from tropical climates. They do their utmost to make the animals nice homes, but it still can't beat the wild.

Of course, zoos perfrom an important function in research, and in bringing greater public awareness for animals. They can also keep endangered species alive.

Over the summer a visitor to Rotterdam Blijdorp was taunting the big male gorilla Bokito, and he sprung over a four kilometer stream, attacking an older woman who came regularly to see him. He dragged her along, breaking her wrist, until he was tranquilized. It wasn't known that Gorillas could jump so far. But I guess they can when taunted. They've now built a high wall with a view point over the Gorilla island, and finally put tint on the glass inside. Even though there were big signs everywhere inside by the gorillas not to use flash, visitors still flashed away, throwing into question how aware a zoo can make a non-thinking public aware of anything. I've often thought, the animals are better behaved than the public itself...