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I went to the zoo while I was in Brasil. It is something of a tradition of mine. Every time I come to Rio it is one of my pit stops, and has been since before I could remember. However, feeling a little too old to want to spend a Sunday morning trapesing around a park with children, I tried to pass it off as a great experience for my now nine month old nephew. I don’t think anyone bought it. For my sake, they took the long drive down to Quinta Boa Vista and watched me flock from site to site, camera firmly in hand.
A little information about this zoo before we begin. The Quinta da Boa Vista (which funnily enough when translated means, Park with the Nice View) is a public park which belonged to the gardens of the São Cristóvão Palace, the residence of the Emperors of Brazil in the 19th century. Eventually the palace was transformed into a museum, the grounds into a park and Zoological Garden, which houses over 2000 species of animals.
As an animal lover it is difficult to articulate how happy and miserable places like this make me. I have always grown up in cities, and in cities there are always zoos; tiny little cages, grey and dark and concrete. But I love animals. I need to see them. When I can marvel at these wonderful creatures with my own eyes I am at my happiest, but having to see them barred and isolated from their natural environment is painful too. Sadly, more and more I am coming to accept that eventually the only place one can count the stripes of a tiger, or bask in the immense shadow of an elephant, is a zoo. Until the grand populous expands their empathy towards preservation of the natural world, it is likely that our animal neighbors are doomed to extinction or destined to live out their days vexed by spoilt toddlers who holler and whistle as they sleep; throwing bits of food or rubbish when the jaded creature doesn’t wake at its command.
This is a post with a few pictures (I took so many, but most were marred by the diagonals of the cages) documenting a trip to a beautiful – and sad – refuge for animals, enclosed by the urban jungle of north Rio de Janeiro.
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