Today, I had the pleasure of discovering the San Francisco Zoo. Although I’ve lived here for eight years and have no conscious reason for having blown off the zoo for so long, I figured it was time to take the plunge.
The zoo surprised me many times. It is much larger than I though it would be. It’s beautifully landscaped, with village like segments cleverly separated by winding, shrub-packed walkways. The quality of the exhibits and the variety of basic zoo animals took me back to childhood and my first walks with the folks around D.C.’s National Zoo.
Most pleasing, however, was the health and disposition of the animals. I was one of those unfortunate kids who visited the Busch Gardens animal preserve in Tampa back when it was considered one of the worst animal sanctuaries in the country. What a horrifying experience that was. In the blistering heat, very little water to be found. Desolate, arid cages with skinny, languid animals panting heavily in whatever shade they could find. Awful.
Animals at the SF Zoo, on the other hand, look like they have personal groomers, weight trainers, and nutritionists. Their eyes (when you can see them) are bright. The animals are attentive even in repose. Unlike the polars bears at the Central Park Zoo, these animals don’t appear to have slipped into a psychotic fugue.
Of the animals who looked like they’d just returned from the spa, the 23-year-old silverback gorilla, the lions, the tigers, the bears, rhinos and hippos, the mandrills, the black howler monkeys, the otters, the giraffes, even the plump little capybara all had a healthy glow about them that erased any anxieties I might have carried forward from the Busch Gardens visit. Get this: the lions, two of whom were born at the SF Zoo in February, 2003, eat horse meat instead of beef because cows are too fatty. That sort of poked my burger fixation right in the eye.
We saw two grizzly females, saved from euthanasia in Montana, who looked like all they’d ever needed was a sunny spot by the beach.
It’s rare that I immediately want to support an institution right after I’ve visited it. Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria was one of those somethings. Happily, the SF Zoo proved to be another.