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Monkey Day Out

Posted 29th January 2011 at 17:39 by Drimma


London Zoo

The original plan had been for a bargain hunting trip to London in the opportune aftermath of seasonal festivities. We'd catch-up on old times whilst with eagle-eye sensitivity scour the overstocks for prized items at wallet friendly prices. But London Zoo proved a worthy consolatory spot for reminiscing.

I was at ease from the outset, not plagued by my usual bothersome esteem-wearing negativity. In fact I looked forward to it. I'd always gotten on with Missey having divined the kindred melancholic in her in our Uni days. She'd sometimes come to my room in the halls we lived and accompany me for a Woody Allen or two.

She looked cheery today [Jan 27th] and her fashion underscored her mood; she wore a bold combo of look-at-me blood red coat, red gloves and red scarf. The conversation was enjoyably easy, it flowed in natural streams without my concious effort and was punctuated with hilariously carefree moments.

The rainbow fishes seemed to share in our joy. They dived and ducked, slid and hid only to greedily prance past again to dance for my gaze. I gave a running commentary to all this, surprising myself at times with flashes of brilliant comical observations. We found Nemo! (How many aquariums and their assistants has that film annoyed the hell out of?) Saw his many co-stars too: Dory, Gill, Peach, Bubbles, Deb, and others. Missey offered the factual commentary, avidly reading out loud the placards that let you know the particular species of the doomed fellow you peeped at and where his home had been.


The giraffes tended to their affairs unperturbed and observed you as much as you did them. The Zebras were nonchalant busy having brunch. The Meerkats were lively though not witty as I'd expected; save for one forward-thinking fellow who looked out from a cozy spot right underneath a heat lamp. He mused at the cloudy day which seemed to not want to start, as if God was hitting the snooze button over and over. Spiders the size of a child's toy car terrified the both of us in equal measure. Sagaciously posing Owls, allotted space in cruelly parsimonious measures, got their revenge by denying me a quality picture of them for as soon as I lifted my camera they would turn just their heads some ninety degrees leaving me with frames of their feathery scalps. I noted too they hadn't touched their breakfast, some decoratively arranged dead mice. The monkeys followed their usual routine with utter indifference to their long travelled guests who only wished of them one magic Kodak moment. Missey wisely opted out of the Lepidoptera den where I was ambushed and smacked by bored and boring butterflies.


Then we arrived at the superstars haunts. Only to be crashingly disenchanted. We saw the female first, still enjoying a quite lie-in so we looked on. The male paced up and down his tiny world, cried indignantly at its smallness and measured it again step for step before once again decrying his fate. The proud Tiger, stripy stylish Tiger, the coolest of all cats reduced to a portrait of despair.
The King faired no better, his majestic maine thinned and darkened by the stress of his lost Kingdom, he too paced in disbelief the breadth of his diminished freedom. To illustrate his pains he gushed urine at a nearby tree, took a walk to the far regions of his territory to come back again before the urine had finished trickling down. I imagined his thoughts mirroring those of exiled Napoleon in distant St. Helena, begrudgingly coming to terms with the cruelty of sliding fortunes; he who was once an emperor, now a prisoner.

The rest of the tour was tinged with a bad after taste; we saw more, but none washed the guilt away. It was a bitter-sweet experience glad to have seen the wondrous breadth of nature but unhinged by the toll paid to afford me it.

We left for a meal, Missey insisted on Leicester Square and I on T.G.I Friday's for my first time, and there over a pricey steak had our most candid conversation yet.


To be cont'd....
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Comments

  1. Old Comment
    Sea's Avatar
    I never know whether I find zoos encouraging or depressing. The tigers seem to be the same in every zoo, pacing up and down...its really quiet upsetting. But then again without zoos what chance would they have? Zoos that do proper conservation work (like London) I think on the whole are a good and educational day out. I think I went there once, but it was a very long time ago when I was young and I don't remember much about it. Looking at your pics, maybe its time I went again
    Posted 29th January 2011 at 20:14 by Sea Sea is offline
  2. Old Comment
    Drimma's Avatar
    LOL ... trust u to comment on this; did u like seeing ur other friends in the pools .

    It was sad to see that tiger like that...the question is of space, cause i think they do obviously feed them well and all that.... jus space....
    So safari's r best....and nowhere better for them than my home Kenya
    Posted 29th January 2011 at 20:48 by Drimma Drimma is offline
  3. Old Comment
    Sea's Avatar
    You know, Nemo was just a minor character in that film

    Ahhh, you're from Kenya, that's cool I went there early last year and did safari on the Masai Mara. I'll be honest, it didn't quite meet expectations but I did enjoy it anyway. The coast was more fun, dolphins, reef fish etc. I was hoping to snorkel with whale sharks but failed miserably...next time maybe
    Posted 29th January 2011 at 20:53 by Sea Sea is offline
  4. Old Comment
    Drimma's Avatar
    I think Dory was also the main star of my lil' movie ^^up yonder -lol

    Cool stuff Dor'! on safari
    I aint been there 4 the longest of times...
    Shame u didnt enjoy the safari....how comes?

    I aint never been 2 Mombasa but i do wanna go...
    Posted 29th January 2011 at 21:04 by Drimma Drimma is offline
  5. Old Comment
    Sea's Avatar
    To be fair a large part of why I did not enjoy it was because I was there with my family. lol. Far from being a comfort in terms of my SA, some of them made it escalate

    But I guess the main thing was that it didn't feel all that wild. Have you been to a safari park in the UK at all? Because it seemed a lot like that, only a bit bigger. Everywhere was covered in landrover tyre tracks and there were just landrovers and people (and cows) everywhere I looked. Also there was one incident where two male lions had been fighting (the alpha male had apparently died recently and these two were competing to take over the pride), and both were injured. So they flew in some vets, tranquillised the lions, shaved their manes and fur and stitched up the wounds! I can understand that these animals are valuable in terms of tourist revenue, but I was kind of disturbed by the 'management' of it all. I mean, whatever happened to survival of the fittest? Surely they will just continue to fight until one of them is dominant. Hence I found it more like a large safari park than a wild place, and I was disappointed by that. Maybe that's how it is with terrestrial megafauna everywhere now....I work mostly with marine megafauna and that is truly wild and what I find the most fascinating aspect of it all. I really found that element of wildness to be lacking on the safari.

    But...I did love the giraffes, they are so awesome!

    Mombasa was very, very busy. Interesting place though. I work a lot on the west coast of Africa and this was my first visit to the east coast...I hope to return

    I was thinking, and the last zoo I went to was in Gabon...they had a strange assortment of guinea pigs, goats, chickens and errr, chimpanzees and two gorillas that had been 'rescued' from the bush meat trade. Most of the primates were kept in isolation in these rickety old small cages that lacked shelter and even seemed to lack water. There were big gaps in the cages that the chimps stuck their arms out of to try and touch people - I was able to stroke many of them and feed them fresh grass. I don't think I have ever been to such a depressing place in my entire life....I contacted some ape people when I got home and they said they were aware of this place but they could do nothing about it as it is a private zoo essentially and the authorities won't confiscate the primates. I have a piece of straw sitting on my window sill that one of the chimps gave me in return when I gave it some grass. In comparison, those pacing tigers live a pretty luxurious lifestyle...
    Posted 30th January 2011 at 11:45 by Sea Sea is offline
  6. Old Comment
    Drimma's Avatar
    Wow, cool ur an ichthyologist < cool i finally get to use that word... i like it...sounds like u have a real cool job that lets u travel - tho i know work travel is not holiday travel -

    Yea as for Safaris and such yea, they bring in big bucks to the economy so i i'm sure they are treated as prized assets ... +they are still in an enclosure so they get feed i think, so it curtails a lot of their natural instincts - thas jus a guess

    it mus have been heartbreaking the zoo in gabon since ur an animal lover... =like the straw by the window at least u got a nice sentient sentimental touch...
    Posted 31st January 2011 at 12:45 by Drimma Drimma is offline
 

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