Behind bars. A lonely musang (wild cat).
I was in my grade school when I first visited Manila Zoo. I remember seeing different animals which were new to me as a kid– zebra, elephant, giraffe, orangutan, and other domestic as well as non-domestic animals. Signage like “Do not feed the monkey,” or “Do not feed the animals” (except for the giraffe which could be fed by the visitors with the grass provided by the admin) was placed in the cage conspicuously. The zoo administration was strict when it comes to this policy.
The zoo environment then was… a zoo. Really. It was a child-friendly place; it was a good location for family bonding. I can say I enjoyed my stay there as grade school kid. I even treasured the joyful memories of feeding the giraffe, having my photos taken with the zebra as a background, and being hit by the water coming out from the elephant’s trunk. It was an awesome experience of a curious child gaining a piece of knowledge about her world.
January 29, 2012. I convinced my boyfriend to have another “tour” at the said Zoo. As grown-ups, we were excited to revisit the place we both found interesting when we were younger.
When we arrived at the entrance, we noticed same old scene: lots of people falling in line to buy tickets, lots of cars and even buses in the parking area, children on tour, etc. It was nice to remember childhood so we fell in line and got our tickets immediately (P40.00 each for adult).
Our first stop was at the peacocks and some other birds which we didn’t know the names since they kind of missing to put some labels on what is this, what is that. Since we both have memories before at the zoo, we hurried and looked for the animal that we had the best encounter with. I was looking for the giraffe, thinking I would be able to feed them again; while he was looking for the orangutan, anticipating that it would spit on him again (since it spat on him before, therefore named the orangutan a “bad old orangutan”). So we passed by the boating area, dropped by at some birds and monkeys, then went to the big cage of the orangutan. To our dismay, it wasn’t there anymore. (At this very moment of writing this blog, I googled about this orangutan named Sisi, and found out that it died in 2009.) Having been frustrated with the orangutan, we looked for my favorite, the giraffe. But then again, no single giraffe showed up. (Only at this very moment again that I was informed that there are lots of people looking for the giraffes. Source: Google. Arg! Where are the giraffes? What happened to them?)
Roaming around the zoo, we noticed that it’s losing its animals while its structure is deteriorating and while it’s gaining more trash, and of course, income. I also observed that there are lots of “wishing pond.” Whose lame idea was that? Haven’t they thought of the possibility of hurting the animals? I saw some kids at the “wishing fish” (if I recalled the name correctly) throwing coins at, no, let me rephrase that, I saw some kids at the “wishing fish” HITTING the fish with their one-peso or five-peso coin. How rude was that to animals? Yeah you’re gonna say, kids are kids and they don’t know yet what they’re doing, but come on, you might have at least thought of that possibility!
I wish the management’s doing some steps to bring back the old Manila Zoo. I hope the animals were taken care of– feeding them the right amount of food they need for a day, cleaning their cages and the zoo’s surrounding as well, giving them enough attention, etc.
SAVE THE ANIMALS! Love them. Imagine yourself being inside the cage, curtailed of freedom, starving, begging for owner’s love and attention… What would your life be?
xoxo,
Jef Conces ♥
P.S. Here are some photos from the zoo.
The peacock. I bet it’s changing its feathers.
I don’t know its name. 
I love its color!
A Myna?
A red bird. Haha! A family of the bird above.
I pity this bird. I bet it’s too weak to get up.
Another attraction. Garbage. Swimming with the Koi.
The starving monkey. It begged for food from the visitor!
The thin tiger. And I bet it’s hungry, too!
Hippopotamus. Oh well. What can I say aside from the fact that it’s fat and is lazy? Haha!
The cute rabbit sleeping in the wood.
Yellow crocodile.
The unmovable crocodile sleeping with a lollipop on its head and a bunch of garbage on his side.
The ever fast and furious turtles.
And, the lone elephant!
