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Feature: Visit to the zoo: a delight
The very concept of a zoo brings refreshing, relaxing reminiscence to mind. There is no other place in a city that has as much capacity to lift the soul as a zoo. There are colourful flowers to look at, fragrances to please the heart and people with happy faces, in their best moods. All tensions and depressing thoughts also vanish as one enters the premises. The easy laughter of children, exuberance of toddlers, scintillating titter of ladies, sweet whistle of birds, all help in making the mood light and jovial.
No doubt, there are other amusement parks far better than zoos, but over there are distractions, tension and a silent unease. However, in a zoo, there are guards to provide us with security. Visitors move with an open and helpful frame of mind. This gives us a pleasant, homely feeling. There is education for those who seek it — awareness about various creatures and an opportunity to see them up close. If their description is provided, we learn even more.
There is usually a museum and someone to tell you about the specimen. The fascinating reptile house, the swans gliding easily on the surface of shady pools and the proud quaking of mallards are breathtaking. The picturesque peacock dances with his iridescent tail, spread in full view of visitors, who stand mesmerized.
The zoo is an ideal means of learning and studying that behaviourism of animals which is impossible to witness in the wild. To keep wild animals healthy, busy, free from tension and ailments, information is collected by observing them for years, jotting down facts, discussing and making intelligent interpretations.
You will find slithering snakes and basking marsh crocodiles. You will discover that the bulky python refuses to eat for two months in winters. The lumbering elephant that was trapped from Chittagong hills some fifty years ago, will accept toffees, biscuits and ice cream from your hand and say ‘thank you’ with a deep-throated grunt.
This year, there have been lovely fawns of desert gazelles that are now threatened in the wild due to excessive hunting and poaching. These animals, get easily used to being fed by human hands.
During the day, they forage on tiny shoots in the wild. As night falls, they lie in low sandy or stony depressions. Here, they are easily able to see approaching enemies, including wolves, hyenas, jackals and foxes. All of these hunters move about in the dark, using their acute sense of hearing and smell. That is why desert gazelle fawns are odourless.
The best protection the newborn has from predators is by freezing, which is going absolutely immobile and quiet. Week-old fawns are so instinctively evolved in the freezing technique that one could be lifted as if it was a rag doll! The mother or the herd can do nothing to protect the cornered fawn except to run fast at the slightest suspicion. That is also why they forage on raised ground for a better view.
Their worst enemy is man. In the subcontinent, they are hunted illegally at night by being blinded by a strong spotlight from a jeep. This confuses them temporarily, and in that brief moment, they are shot mercilessly.
In drought, desert gazelles survive without water even up to six months at a stretch, by licking fresh dew on desert plants. Any other creature’s blood will go thick in such circumstances, and the heart will fail to pump it away. But in gazelles, the blood remains as thin as is necessary for the heart to pump it. This is essential because a gazelle would never be able to run fast if its blood were thick.
The Spotted Axis deer is another herd that is flourishing in the zoo. They live in semi-dense forests under small trees. The spotted markings on their coat help them camouflage in half- sunny, half-shady surroundings.
You can also see the llama baby being watched by its mother. Still in its suckling stage, it follows the mother everywhere, who loves to stroll slowly, consuming the morning meal that the herd is given. This animal originally is from the Rocky Andes of South America.
Llama and camels are closely related in many ways but differ vastly in their habitat: the llama thrives in the freezing mountains with snow and cold rivers around, while the camel loves the desert with little water or wild grass. The Llama and camel will die if they change their habitats.
Here you will also find twin calves of the Neel Gai. The name ‘Neel’ (blue) denotes the bluish, steel-grey colours the males carry. When the male Neel Gai has grown old enough to survive without the help of his mother, it starts changing the colour of the coat and develops these colours.
There are Red deers, Sika deers and White Fellow deer, fully acclimatized to flourish in captivity, where they are free from fear of enemies and disease carrying parasites.
The Pelican carries a leathery pouch below its beak to scoop water, hoping there will be a fish or two, on which they survive. In the centre of the pond, there is an island. Here, pelicans nest, incubate their eggs, raise chicks and feed them by dropping nutritious half-digested food from their stomach into the open beak of the young one. The mother still follows the youngster that is almost as big as the mother, but not quite grown-up. It still carries the juvenile feathers that will turn pink-white at maturity.
There are other grass eaters, meat eaters and what not. Oh yes — it is fun at the zoo! So go and have a picnic. Wednesdays are for ladies and children.
In Karachi zoo, you will find helpful employees who will make your visit worthwhile. You can call up 9215382 for the director Mr Mansoor, a gentlemen eager to learn and teach. On 9215383 is Dr Kazim, busy as a bee and always ready to help you. There is Ms Abida Rizvi, usually with groups of students and teachers, moving from cage to cage, telling them interesting stories about wild animals. Educational trips are conducted by trained zoologist, Ms Abida, who can be reached for an appointment on 9215383. You can also see the zoo on website: www.zoo.com.
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