Saturday, May 30, 2009

Giza Zoo - A Cultural Experience

A few months back (yes, I'm still that behind...) two of my fellow interns and I visited the Giza Zoo. Here are some pictures from that trip.


It will soon be very apparent that I just downloaded an image framing program and I love playing around with it. The raw power of these lions is palpable, even when they are locked up in such horrific cages.


From this angle, this rhino looks kind of small. It was not.



FEED ME!






I won't get into the animal cruelty issues here, since its been said many times before (google it), but using the horse pen as a garbage dump is cruel and very sad to see.



The day we went to the zoo, there was a huge party atmosphere and the place was completely packed.



No one knew why there were so many Scream masks at the zoo.



WHY ARE YOU RUNNING IN THE ANIMAL HABITAT?


This was absolutely the highlight of the trip. COME SEE THE FEARSOME WOLF DOG! This exotic, fierce animal turned out to be...


...this! A house pet. It had an area covering more than all of the lion cages combined! I've been in Cairo for nine months now, but things like this still make me stop and scratch my head.

4 comments:

Mikaela H B said...

i´ve been there! its a nice, but in the same time, a bad place to go. As you wrote, the animalissue.

I am swedish but live halftime in egypt. Nice to read other foreigns blogs from there. :)

Ramadan kareem!

Anonymous said...

great blog! but a big wtf about the scream masks

Glojo said...

I just happened across your post as I am writing a feature story on the Giza Zoo and the ongoing struggle of the animal welfare advocates who want to help the animals there. I have to say, although the animals are amazingly beautiful, as are the surroundings, your pictures illustrate how horrifically small the enclosures are (as I had heard, but never seen evidence). I appreciate that as an American tourist at the zoo, you recognized that as well. Sometimes people get so wrapped up in the splendor of seeing exotic animals in zoos that they neglect to see how terribly we treat them. Anyway, just rambling after a couple of glasses of wine , much needed when writing depressing articles. Thanks for sharing, and for paying attention.

Unknown said...

My Egyptian American Husband and I went there also. We were horrified!
We asked to speak with the Zoo director, but he declined to speak with us. Very arrogant man. The people there know no better as they have nothing to compare with.
The Zoo should be used as an educational attraction as well. The Egyptian Zoo workers have no real training. It will take outsiders to get it on-track. We need zoologists, vets... etc. to go in and do a 4 year plan, and then maintain it. It could be worked out with American and European Universites to send their students that are working on related degrees.
Now that mubarak and his cronies are gone, we can get Qualified people to take over these positions. But they will still need outside help. We can ask the FB site: "Lets clean Egypt" to take over the cleaning/garbage problem. High School students could come in Daily to speak with the many children that roam the zoo about the exhibits. I gathered at least 50 kids in a group and spoke to them about the zoo. A Zoo store should be built that offers books, hats, Safari type items.. treats. This could be a money maker for the Zoo. Also, Raise the entry fee!!!