The Zoo

Yesterday we took Mina to the St. Louis Zoo. The Zoo is really one of the shiny points of an otherwise lackluster city. I can't think of any other free zoo that can compete in terms of scope and execution. To that end I always cringe when I hear people complaining about having to pay $2.00 for soda there. Don't they realise that a zoo like this would cost them at least $15.00 a head elsewhere?


They recently added a new house for penguins and puffins that I was eager to check out. It must be popular because there was line to get into it. I've never seen a line for anything at the zoo. The cool (literally) thing about it was that inside they kept it at 45 degrees. It was like a meat locker. Along the pathways that had these transparent swimming tanks for the birds. You could reach out and touch them if you were so inclined. (Prior to entering the Zookeeper warned against it because they bite.) The designer must have taken a lesson from Walt Disney World because you exit right into a gift shop.


Animals in zoos really have it made. In his book Life of Pi, Yann Martel's character Pi argues against people who would like to view zoo animals as prisoners. He laughs at people who picture lions in the wild sitting on the African plain admiring the sunset or planning a vacation. Zoos, as he explains, provide food and water as well as a secure environment, free from predators. Animals, he says, prefer the familiar. The small environments zoos give them are better suited for their phyche. Zoos are doing for animals what humans have done for themselves for a long time--supplying all their needs in a condensed environment, or home.