Yesterday we went to the Moscow Zoo! It was an amazing experience and I got to see my first Polar Bear!!
We walked around for about 3 hours and saw so many wonderful animals!
We only paid 200 roubles
entry - £4 or so and so I was highly suspicious that I would have my
heart wrenched by seeing animals in small cages but the Russians managed
surpass my low expectations - I think the Zoo gets a lot of government funding,
as well as outside conservation funding, especially for the endangered
animals like the Polar Bear, Arctic Wolf, Snow Leopard etc. The signs at the zoo with information on the animals often had corporate sponsorship plaquards - Google was one of the big sponsors! Some of the
runs/enclosures looked better than the ones at London Zoo!! With lots
more to do for the animals - especially the tiger enclosure & primate enclosures.
The variety of animals was
different to any zoo I've been to before and they had a lot more
Asian/Siberian animals. So Siberian Tiger, lion, Indian Elephant, Polar Bear, Arctic Wolf, Snow Leopard, Sloth Bear, Asiatic Black Bears, Wolves in general....errrr....lots of animals - it's hard to remember specifically! They also had a
massive lake with lots of birds/ducks/swans etc living on it. The Black Swans were very beautiful. They also had different types of Asian Eagles including massive Sea Eagles. In the Reptile area they had gorgeous snakes and a lot of crocodiles! Some of the crocodiles were massive but also incredibly stunning! I find there's something calming about crcodiles, I know they're killers but the way they look and stay still, it's very peaceful. They also had Mountain Goats - including a tiny little baby and lots of horses! I managed to teach a few of the Russians the reason why the horses were trying to lick their hands was because they like the salt residue on our hands! Snaps for me for using my Russian at the Zoo!
The Polar
Bear was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's the first polar bear I've seen
ever!! He was SO beautiful and graceful and HUGE but I fell in love!
And his partner was sleeping in the cave! So cuuute!! I love Polar Bears and I don't agree with Russian law which allows them to be hunted up to a certain number. I think that Polar Bears need to be protected because we're the ones who are ruining their natural habitat, especially if we encroach on their home with expeditions and such. It's only natural that Polar Bears will begin attacking humans if there's a lack of food for them caused by melting of ice caps and over fishing. It's a viscious circle which only leads back to a human cause. But anyway, enough of the lecture, the Polar Bears were incredible!
Janis, Ricardo and I also went to the "Dolphinairium" and
saw the show there! It was only 20 roubles entry (40 pence) and we saw a Dolphin and a Bulga Whale perform!! Obviously forcing animals to perform tricks like that it quite cruel, but it's amazing how intelligent Dolphins are and the things that they can do! In the grand scale of things I think humans are quite stupid as a species! We also saw their massive Walruses in their grand tank and it made me think of Alice in Wonderland!
Overall the Zoo was an amazing experience and I'm so glad that I was comfortable with the condition that the animals were kept in. Kudos to the Russians. Something positive for once!
