Shanghai Zoo
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2007
1
17
54
Trip End
Dec 20, 2007
Shanghai,
China
Friday, October 26, 2007
The red pandas were really cute and very playful. They had a reasonable enclosure and were happy to parade for the cameras. However, we were shocked to see the giant pandas were locked inside their glass pens. They had no straw to sleep on just the concrete floor and a few branches of bamboo to munch on. Their enclosure out side looked no better. There were only a few weeds on the muddy ground for them to play on
Shanghai - Zoo
. No bushes or trees to climb. Its like they are kept permanently on display. They looked board and not really with it. The bears were kept in concrete pens and the wolves had hardly any space to run around in.What horrified us more was the elephant enclosure. It certainly didn't seem big enough for the four elephants we saw but it was the fact that they were kept inside, chained to the railings of their pens. The were again on concrete floors and the water and food that was in their pens they could not reach as their chains prevented them from moving too far. Worst still was a baby elephant trying to suckle from its mother who continually was swaying from side to side and knocking the child out of the way all the time. It was enough to bring Bob to tears.
The worst part was not so much the horrible way some of the animals were kept - poor funding and a lack of knowledge can result in that. It was the way the locals treated the animals. There were no other foreign tourists that day only Chinese. We watched them throw rubbish and remains of their packed lunches into the pens. They would ignore all the signs such as no smoking and poke at some of the animals. Even when the few keepers we saw told them not to, they would wait until he had gone and continue
Shanghai - Zoo
. They had absolutely no respect!!It looked like all the primates at the front of the park had recently obtained new enclosures. The gorilla's had the best. Their indoor enclosure had plenty of swings, ropes, tree houses and objects stuffed with food to keep them entertained. It appeared large enough too. Their out side enclosure was similar also. Plus the notices about all the primates were in English as well as Chinese.
Once we had left the Zoo we headed for the Bund and took a stroll at night to see the lights and reflect on what we had seen that day before grabbing a McDonald's take-away.
