Day at the Zoo

 Today our class is using our last day to visit the Fort Worth zoo. Going to the zoo used to be something I absolutely loved when I was little. Our class field trips to the Minnesota or Como zoo were always my favorite, and whenever my family went to Omaha to visit our relatives, I would beg my parents to take us to the Omaha zoo. Now that I’m here, I am realizing that I don’t think I have been to the zoo in like 10 years (other than frog camp which didn’t really count). It has been so long since I’ve seen some of the world’s more exotic animals with my own eyes, and I had forgotten the sort of awe it can induce. Right now, I am sitting by the Bonobo enclosure writing this. I think these may be the most human-like animals I have encountered. Just as I was walking up and reading their placard, they all stormed out of the interior to gather the fruits left scattered around by the zoo’s staff. They walked around their enclosure on two feet gathering the fruits in their hands, and when all the fruit had been retrieved, found their respective spots to sit and enjoy their meal. I walked through some doors to find the window to the interior of their enclosure and found one sitting just in front of the window eating its pile of fruits. I read the placard again and discovered that these Bonobo are an endangered species found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They are often hunted for their meat which is then sold in local markets. This has me considering the difficulties of conservation and endangered species protection in countries with serious economic hardship and extreme poverty. How do you prevent people who struggle to feed their families from hunting an animal when it can determine their own survival? Who is truly responsible for this sort of conservation? Should it be the people who consider food and money to be far more immediate concerns than the preservation of an endangered species, or wealthier nations and organizations? Sitting here watching these Bonobos interact in a controlled environment, it is hard to imagine that their existence in the wild is in jeopardy. Like other things we have talked about this semester, it makes me realize that conservation is not just about protecting animals and ecosystems, but about understanding the other things at work that make that protection so difficult.


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