We spent this afternoon, as a family, at The World Famous San Diego Zoo. I hadn't been to the zoo since maybe high school, though I have a feeling it was a bit longer than that. It is really a nice place, as far as zoos are concerned, but I have to admit that I think we kind of ruined it for ourselves by doing the Wild Animal Park last month and then this one later. You really can't compare the two. The encolsures are well done at the zoo and they have tons of foliage, but nothing seems to compare to seeing animals in large habitats, roaming around and even hiding from you (how many have actually seen the tigers at the Wild Animal Park?) I suppose it all goes back to my general unease about zoos and cages and wild animals and all that. It's such a gray area for me...for instance, we were reminded today that one of the animals (I'm sure there were more, but we only heard the bus operator speak about this one), an Onyx, only exist in captivity today and if it weren't for zoos, they would be completely extinct due to hunting in their native land. Which led me to wonder...what if they're being poached to be taken to zoos. Or maybe the zoos really are saving them. Do the Onyx ever get to be free? Could they be free? Would they actually be happy having to find their own food and make their own way?
I digress...it was a lovely family outing and Nathaniel fully enjoyed the plants that were within grabbing distance :) Unfortunately, the hippo seemed to terrify him...I suppose that's a natural response to a giant animal coming straight at you through a window. Especially when you weigh about 16 pounds and said animal weighs about 100 times that!
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