November 11, 2005
It's all happening at the zoo...
My new friend Kevin is a zookeeper. He & his dear wife Becca took Orange, Martina & I on a behind the scenes tour of the zoo. Having that kind of proximity to the animals was thrilling . . . and I really enjoyed my human companions, too. :-)
Get this: I had giraffes, muntjacs and a sun bear licking food from my hand. We got our hands slimed by an elephant's trunk mucous. I fed a siamang (an ape) yogurt through a syringe. Cotton-topped tamarins grabbed dried fruit from us with their tiny hands. We scratched a hyena with a backscratcher 'til his leg started to twitch.
View the full Flickr photoset, or watch the slideshow.
(And yes, I understand the animal rights arguments against zoos. To copy my own recent defense made elsewhere: I'm a strict vegetarian on animal rights grounds, and am not supportive of circuses, either. I think the matter of zoos is more complex: the violation of animal rights is tempered, to my mind, by the fact that many of the animals there have been rescued from circuses or other abuses. The greater argument in favor of zoos is that by displaying a few representative sample animals in captivity, the public's sense of wonder translates into greater support for the preservation of critical animal habitat in general. It's a utilitarian argument, but then, I'm a utilitarian.)