Ha ha.... but seriously, the Ueno zoo is great, in some ways. It covers all the bases --hippos, giraffes, polar bears, tigers, etc etc., and there are loads of exotic birds. The place is clean and the newer parts are very nicely landscaped. Ice cream is widely available. And yet, and yet...the animals have no space! They are seriously hemmed in. I did not have to zoom in to take this picture of a lioness on a rock, she was so close to the glass wall (see the reflection of the two ladies standing to my left?).
I should note that this lioness does not seem at all disturbed by her situation. She is calm, serene, regal. But, but...I just don't know.The gorillas have the same deal. Again, no zooming in here:
The zoo's giant panda, Ling Ling, died in late April from chronic heart failure, so we missed our chance to see her. But apparently China is going to send over two replacements, though the matter is somewhat controversial, as the Japanese government must pay some hefty fees to lease the animals -- $1 million per year per panda. The Asia-Pacific branch of PETA, for its part, is lobbying against the deal, saying pandas are miserable in confinement and that the money, which is supposed to help preserve their natural habitat, does no such thing. The Beijing zoo, meanwhile, has 8 new pandas, evacuees from the Wolong Nature Reserve, which was damaged by last month's earthquake. In other panda news, Chinese nationalists are calling for a ban on Spielberg's movie Kung Fu Panda, to get back at him for ditching the Olympics.
1 comment:
Hey. I love reading your blog as I used to live in Tokyo too and I miss it (I'm returning to live again in 2010 and I can't wait) Anyway if you think Ueno zoo is bad don't go to any other zoo's in Japan EVER, except the zoo in Hokaido which is meant to be the best zoo in Japan, Ueno zoo is 2nd best. We went to the saddest zoo in Himeji just beside the castle (Himeji is near Osaka) and the zoo there made me feel physically sick. The Elephant could maybe do 2 steps back and forth, the polar bears had a bath tub sized "pool" and were pacing around their cage the size of a small bus, just pacing around in distressed circles. They were just in a concrete cage, worse than a prison cell. We took no photos and left quickly. I wish I could do something for those animals, it was horrible. I think Japan isn't always as forward thinking as people in the west seem to think, sometimes it can be as bad as China for treatment of animals.
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