I know people have very mixed reactions to zoos and I know plenty of people who will not even visit them as a protest to captive animals. I get that. But I love to visit zoos in other countries because to me it tells me a lot about their culture. Locals here had told us that they do not like this zoo due to small habitats and poor conditions so our hopes were not too high. I nearly cried at a zoo in Japan once and Iran's treatment of caged animals was not more impressive than their reputation for human rights, let's just say. But if the conditions at this zoo were 'bad' then, well, the rest of the world might as well close down their zoos and call it a day.
primate playground island.
I liked their use of ditches with water rather than high fencing. It let us get really close to the animals and see them better than we ever have before at any other zoo. This again would be impossible in our sue happy culture! There is nothing from stopping a teen on a dare to jump the ditch and get to the animals or a small child not being watched by their parent to fall into the ditch. This is the aspect of being in places like here and Japan that I enjoy the most. The government expects their citizens to take personal responsibility. In Japan they go so far as to make the family of someone who commits suicide on the train tracks to pay for the damage, clean up and loss of income due to postponed trains. In the States the family would likely try to sue the train for not stopping.
We really got to get a good look at the animals! Toenails, eyelids, nostrils were all in good plain sight.
Now the animal I didn't need such a close look at was wild piggy here! You know, since I'd already seen one about one foot away from my face. Yup, the one in the middle with the tusks is exactly what the one in the forest looked like. He is the substance of my nightmares. I know everything is supposed to be beautiful in its own way- but quite frankly I just ain't seeing it here. That is one ugly animal.
Is it me, or does this bird look like some sort of crazy professor that knows way too much? I felt like it was Einstein stuck in a bird's body. When he looked at me I thought I was in one of those weird Disney movies where the animal was going to start talking. He actually made me nervous.
Not surprisingly there was a playground here and this is where the bulk of the day was spent once again.
The netted sections below are trampolines- nice springy ones like at the circus. I love that. There were 3 of those in this structure. I had a friend at home who could not even get home owners insurance by having a trampoline in the backyard. And here they are to be used by the general public.
This crazy contraption was great. Most merry-go-rounds have been removed from public parks in the US due to lawsuits and being considered 'dangerous.' Mindy commented on parks the other day:
I'm a professional nanny and I've longed wondered if the increased number of children that we see in the states affected by sensory integration disorders is in some way caused/contributed to by the many ways that we now constrict movement in children and don't allow them to fully experience all that is around them. Seeing the pictures of the different park equipment that allowed all kinds of movement (that definitely would NOT be allowed here) made me look at the statistics of children with sensory issues in Germany. It is astounding to to see what a HUGE difference there is there compared to here.
I couldn't agree more. MIndy, I would love it if you could direct us at specific stats. When I was teaching preschool the number of parents coming to me and informing that their child had some form of sensory integration challenges was at nearly 50%! I know these things move in trends and this is a hot one now but I agree that limiting movement is a huge contributor. We knew people who got a pass to Disneyland for their child from their OT mainly for the teacups and the spinning, which was said to really help with treatment. Since there are no more merry-go-rounds in parks the only spinning that could be found was at Disneyland. What I have found in my travels to be so interesting is that all over the world people have some sort of spinning devise at parks for children. It's like everyone knew this was somehow beneficial to the developing brain and naturally put them in. Most countries still have them. Japan, Indonesia, Iran, all over Europe all still have theirs. In Japan all first graders learn to ride a unicycle because the Japanese (rightly) believe that good balance is good for the brain. This is all now being proven through brain research, but is kind of silly in the same way many things in Western society are now. Through the ages people have naturally known certain things are beneficial and now science can prove what our grandparents knew through common sense.
If you ran around the outside it would make it spin. And yes, kids were flying off of this thing right and left. Some cried. Some got a mouth full of dirt when they landed. Some whacked their heads when they sat up underneath the disc, but all lived. None of the injuries were serious and the teachers handled them with calm and nonchalance. They helped clean them up and sent them back off again.
The structures here require balance, skill, strength and thinking to navigate them. In contrast to ours at home that require none of those and we wonder why our youth are lacking in the above qualities.
There was a sweet little petting area with lots of new babies to see. For a big city zoo I'm giving this one a thumbs up. A good time was had by all and all the kids were bummed when that closed at 6 pm.
