A visit to the Dehiwela Zoo

It was Mothers’ Day yesterday and since mom loves animals, we thought we’ll make an occasion of it and the family, including Uncle George decided to visit the zoo. I can’t remember when I last went…. Hundreds of years ago it seemed!

So we packed a picnic lunch of egg & tomato and cheese & tomato sandwiches, some sprite, chocolate cake, chocolates and other fruits and nibbles and set off to the zoo. I was quite impressed with the large number of people visiting the zoo. I was also impressed that Sri Lanka has finally taken a leaf out of the book of other countries and charged different entrance fees for locals and foreigners.

We walked around noting with sadness the run down state of the zoo. A lot of the cages were empty… did the animals die?? I had a nagging feeling that they probably starved to death! All the carnivorous animals seemed a rather mangy little bunch. The numbers have dwindled and current ‘residents’ seem very unhappy. The cage area for the leopards and lions seemed small to me, but worst of all was that they all seemed ravenously hungry. I got the feeing they are fed only once a day and perhaps some of them are occasionally forgotten tooL. We saw the deer, giraffe and other vegetarians being fed, though one or two seemed quarantined inside their quarters and were not fed along with the others. My heart bled for one who was watching the others eating and crying piteously the whole while. Made me want to vault over the fence and feed him.

The normally majestic lions though still with their good looks were half starved, lethargic looking fellows… Their ribs showed!!! We saw them at feeding time and were surprised to see that they just got large bones… no meat… is that why they are looking rather malnourished?? Some of them seemed uninterested in the bones letting the crows feast on the bones instead. The veg animals looked alright, and so did the fish and birds and the horrid reptiles, but the poor carnivores looked a very hungry bunch. I do hope the officials at the zoo will take better care of the animals.

The monkeys seemed a happy gang though. We saw families with their baby monkeys playing and generally lazing around looking quite content with their lot.

We saw the many hued birds, the horrid serpents (they are NOT a particular favourite of mine), we walked through the bird aviary where the birds are given free flight (upto a limit though). It’s a lovely little walk through with a wooden bridge and quaint fences etc, we wondered through the dim fish aquarium and we stared in awe at the beautiful coloured fish, some of them had the most unbelievable colours and shapes. There were fish with frills, with spikes and the most vivid colours imaginable, like neon blue and buttercup yellow and fascinating colour mixes too, then there were almost see-through glass fish. Truly fascinating indeed. How wonderful nature is!

The zoo authorities have made several places for families to sit down and have their mid-day meals. There were little huts with taps and garbage bins located very conveniently right throughout the zoo and the toilet facilities too seemed clean and well maintained. There were a large number of places where one could buy water, iced drinks, ice-cream, milk and snacks. There was a nice looking restaurant and a several places where one could buy lunches of rice-packs.

Around lunch time we found a vacant hut and settled down to our picnic lunch. Thank goodness we had sandwiches as opposed to buying lunch packs which seemed freely available. Sandwiches were a clean, easy to eat, less messy way of having lunch. It would have been quite a feat sitting balancing a rice packs on ones lap.

The feeding time for the seal drew a very large crowed at 4.00 p.m. (again one wonders whether the poor fellow is just fed only once a day). Everyone seemed to enjoy the show and the children seemed to be the happiest. We however got there at 4.00 p.m. only to find the little place so crowded that we couldn’t see a thing.

We decided to go over to the elephant arena to avoid the same thing happening. Finding a grass covered arena we sat down and had some chocolate cake while waiting. At 4.20 I noticed that apart from a few amorous couples who seemed to have grown roots there, there didn’t seem to be anyone else to watch the elephant show. On inquiring from the snack bar across the way I found out that there was a new area. So we made hasty tracks there and found a much larger arena rapidly filling up. Finding a good spot we settled down and were soon enjoying a marvelous show put on by the elephants. Almost by accident we had stumbled across an entrance giving us access to the seats which the elephants faced when they performed. The performance was AMAZING!!! It was really wonderful! I did feel a bit sad that the elephants were prodded by the mahouts with spear like objects though.

Dad and Mom reminisced about the times when they came many years ago, the shows they had back then, including one with a chimp. According to them there were many more animals then, and the zoo and the inhabitants was better maintained. However, now there are much more facilities available for the visitors including wheelchair access/ramps and the arenas etc are better. Somehow I think I would rather the animals be better off and happy first.

Soon after the show we made tracks home tired with all the walking but happy with the lovely day. We were so thankful that the rains held off too despite the dire rumblings and ominous darkening in the morning.