… Continued from Lions and Tigers and Bears and so much more, part 1
The Funny
So, I don’t know if you’ll think it’s funny, but while we wandered through the concrete cage section, we were surprised by an all too familiar sound of a dog barking. Yep, that’s right, one row of these abominable cages were dog kennels with, let’s see, a German shepherd, a couple of mastiffs and some other dog or two. I guess in a country where dogs can be on the menu in some places, why not put them in a zoo.
On a similar note, while looking at the smaller aviaries in the big aviary, the ones with pheasants and parrots, we came across another one that had, get this, three other bird cages in it with a bird in each one. So that’s a bird in a cage in a big cage in a very large aviary. I’m guessing these are very valuable birds or it’s just some ancient Chinese secret I’m not informed of. Maybe they’re like the ravens at the Tower of London in cages so they don’t leave because if they do then the empire will fall.
One funny thing I can’t forget to mention is the gibbons. They have standard monkey enclosures with tons more space than some lauded zoos I’ve been to in America with some trees and stuff to play on. All around their home are signs, as in the rest of the zoo, telling you not to feed the animals. I don’t think many people pay attention to these signs though because when we walked up to the wall, these smart apes who were staying dry in their building saw us and came walking over in their funny little way and right below us looking up for us to drop something in.
They weren’t the only ones either. The chimpanzees did this too and both kinds of ape tried to perform for us to get something. One chimp even climbed all the way up his tree to be closer to eye level and waved at us. When he could see we weren’t giving him anything he started to shoo us away. Anyway, if you’ve never seen a little gibbon walk or run, do it before you die because it’s hilarious.
Other
The wild animal park, as they call themselves in English, also has a sea lion show that was fun to watch. The arena is set up for more than one animal but we only saw one perform. I’m thinking they only bring out another one if it’s a big crowd. The sea lion was well trained and did all the usual tricks very well. The biggest difference between this show and similar ones at say Sea World is that there was no lesson to be taught about conservation or anything during the show. It was purely for entertainment.
I also saw my first Giant Panda in China at this zoo. It has its own little walled area with its enclosure in the middle. Unfortunately, the panda was in its little building, probably due to the rain, and just sleeping. We didn’t even get to see its face, but we did see a real live, genuine panda bear in China. It just made me want to go to the China research and breeding facility even more out in Sichuan Province. Someday.
We didn’t really see any reptiles though at this zoo because you had to pay an extra 10 Yuan to see them. That’s not really very much but still, I think that your admission to a zoo should cover all the animals even the reptiles. Anyway, I probably would have been disappointed with their reptile exhibits after just being to the Fort Worth Zoo’s MOLA a few weeks ago.
The zoo also has a little amusement area with small carnival rides for kids. It wasn’t open when we were there. But there was a pirate ride that had a great misspelling on it. It was called the Super Sirate Phip. The zoo is also making new enclosures and is visibly trying to improve, which is always a good thing.
My next animal adventure in China will either be the Hefei Aquarium or the nearby Chinese alligator farm I learned about online yesterday. This weekend is Mid-Autumn Festival though so I’ll have some more adventures to share soon. Thanks for reading and remember, “Adventure is out there!”
Emad
Nice !