I have just received a rather lovely email from a friend who inquired about our family and our 'zoo'. Gerald Durrell's wonderful book title 'My family and other animals' came to mind. As a child I was constantly pestering to be taken to zoos and museums, our local zoo being Banham Zoo www.banhamzoo.co.uk and I would go to each individual enclosure not wanting to leave until I had read about, and seen, each occupant. I personally believe good zoos do have a place in our society. Every child I have spoken to knows what a Meerkat is and will happily launch into 'Compare zee market dot com, compare zee Meerkat dot com. Simples'. The amazing power of media and catchy lines! However they do now know what a Meerkat actually is and besides extremely valuable breeding programs, zoos provide education, research and a living reference for all of us. If we do not see first hand a creature that our actions might be detrimentally affecting in the wild elsewhere in the world, how do we feel any passion for it or a need to change our actions? Zoos give us the opportunity to experience the creatures we share this planet with and to hopefully enable us to feel an empathy with them. When I go into a school or am part of an event, I am a Keeper as far as the children are concerned and I let them walk through the bars to experience the occupants first hand. It is the minute detail they pick on; the exoskeleton that rises like thorns on a thorax or the breathing hole of a snail. They experience a wonder and hopefully they take this away with them. Perhaps they will think twice about dropping litter or throwing stones at the ducks in the park. Perhaps they will just have a little more respect for what is around them and in the world they live in. Sometimes it is the child's view that can change the parents. I know lots of adults who have over come their tobacco addiction only because of their children's pestering. Now it is getting warmer, get out and go to your local zoo or wildlife park. Take the family and read those information signs, read them to those that can't. Stay long enough to see the occupant before you move on and point it out to everyone in your group. Look at what it is doing, its colour, its shape, how it moves and what it eats. Use the experience for what it is - a unique opportunity to actually see some of the incredible creatures you share your world with and in turn share that with your family. Make it a great day out!
We hope that there will be fireflies and glow-worms at night to guide you and butterflies in hedges and forests to greet you.
We hope that there will still be the extraordinary varieties of creatures sharing the land of the planet with you to enchant you and enrich your lives as they have done for us.
We hope that you will be grateful for having been born into such a magical world.
Written in 1988 by Gerald Durrell
www.durrell.org
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