Going to the zoo

Last weekend was a very conflicted one. We visited the San Antonio Zoo and then Hamilton Pool. Both should have been uplifting and fun experiences. Unfortunately they were not.

San Antonio Zoo is advertised as one of the better, if not one of the top 5 zoos in the country. Well all I can say I hope the ones that are better, are a lot better. SA Zoo has a reasonable collection of birds, reptiles and mammals. My issue is with the condition that many are kept. I though many of the birds were in cages that were too small for the bird in question. Similarly most of the mammals are in bare concrete and rock enclosures. No sign of soil or plant live anywhere near them. So I was not surprised to see that a significant number of the enclosures have signs up saying that the animals were currently under medical treatment in the enclosure or in a more confined area. I should declare here that I grew up in Africa and have had the privilege of seeing many of these animals in the wild and in some zoos that have more expansive and more realistic enclosures.

However, that does not make the state of the many of these poor animals any better. The elephant, grizzly, lion and other big cats generally appeared very lethargic, and as is to be expected, bored out of their skulls. The ones that were not, were generally pacing around almost with agitation. The larger of 2 white rhinos was continually chasing and attacking the younger and smaller rhino in the same enclosure. (At least they had some mud to wallow in).

I am sure the zoo keepers have the best intentions, and are doing what they can with limited resources. I am also sure that they are having some success with breeding programs. However, this looks like a clear case of having a smaller more focused population would allow them to offer the animals a truly better life and probably more success in a smaller number of focused breeding programs.

Now to the one that was fun. Hamilton pool is a small valley and waterfall with a medium sized pool near Austin. We have recently had exceptional amounts of rain with flooding and the like. So the waterfall at Hamilton pool was spectacular. The good news for us was we were the only people there. The bad news is that so few people are getting to see and experience the spectacle in their midst. It is amazing how few people even know it exists, and despite actually being on the local evening TV news recently, so few people care to see it. I presume watching football or playing a mindless computer game has become more interesting to most folks. Sad that is. Very sad.