At the Zoo

Yesterday, Jack and I decided we wanted to go to the zoo that we had seen near the marina in Ayamonte, Spain. It is one of the smallest zoos I have ever seen. I would say that the zoo was more like a beautiful park than a large collection of animals. There were just a few different kinds of animals. Here are a few poems I wrote while we were at the zoo and then some descriptions of what we saw.

The Lion

He sits in the sun

Apparently having no fun

Oh how he roars

I shan't give him any sores

The lioness creeps

To where the lion sleeps

Where the lion used to rumble

There's nothing but a kingdom to crumble

At the zoo there were two lions, a male and a female. The female kept away from the windows that let us see into her cage. At one point Jack and I were sitting two inches from the male lion, who snapped at your fingers whenever you moved them, with only a piece of glass between us. In contrast, the lioness would stalk up to the male lion and stomp off.

The Baboon

Digging deep for bugs

While others share hugs

Walking in a straight line

Like always it's time to dine

Guarding their territory

Wow it's quite a story

There's much freedom for them to see

But sadly they are not free

The baboons were hilarious. For starters, they had no fur on their bottoms so they were pink, which made me and Jack laugh. The baboons would randomly jump at each other and give hugs. Once we leaned a backpack against the glass and one of the baboons became curious and headed toward us. To our delight, he stayed around, and to our amusement tried to push over the backpack. I accidently touched the glass and the little monkey started banging on the glass and shrieking. All the other baboons stopped what they were doing and ran over. A medium sized baboon slammed into the glass about a foot off the ground. Ouch. He looked like he was attacking us. We grabbed the backpack… and the largest one slammed into the glass with enough momentum to knock us out. This experience was interesting and a little bit nerve racking.

The Tiger

You poor old creature

With no other tiger to be your teacher

It's so sad you are blind

I hope you don't mind

Oh black and red

Are you correctly fed?

Sadly you are stuck alone

Oh, how you must moan

The tiger was blind, skinny, and fast. He had pearly white eyes that were weird to look at. His ribs stuck out and his fur was hanging strangely over his left side. Besides all this, which made me very sad, he would occasionally run, and do it pretty fast, across his tiny cage.

Zebra

Dear black and white

Please don't bite

You must hate the mud

Filled with crud

 

Where's your grass

Young zebra lass

You must be in an awful mood

With so little food

I think the worst tragedy of the zoo was that of the Zebra's. The three zebras were crammed in to a fifty foot by twenty foot donut shaped corral. There was a small shed with enough room for two zebras to fit comfortably, so not enough for three to cram in, at the end of the corral. There was also nothing green in their corral- no grass, no trees, nothing. Instead, it was all mud.

Tortoises and turtles

Hello tortoise in the back of your shed

You sit so still, are you dead?

Has your death passed, I hope not

It would stink to smell you rot

Hey, little turtle do you like water

Or the air that's plenty hotter

While you sleep by your stream

Of what do you dream?

The tortoise sat in the back of his shed and didn't move. I seriously thought he was dead. In a doughnut shaped stream lots of turtles swam through the water while others bathed in the warm afternoon sun. They were actually pretty cute. And of all the animals in the zoo, they seemed to me to be the happiest or at least the most content.

Red Deer

You wonderful young deer

Living with nothing to fear

As you lie in rest

I realize you are the best

You can run, play, and race

At an incredible pace

Do you race and play for fun?

Or is there another reason that you run?

Inside the Red Deer corral four females lived with one male. Two females would follow any visitors. Probably hoping they might toss them some food. The other two would zig zag in front of the male until he grunted noisily and raced at them. To follow that there would be a thirty second chase. The male would then trap the two females in a corner and charge one while the other one ran. The male would lounge and always miss the escaping female then turn around to see the other female racing away from him. Although the baboons have my favorite story, my favorite animals were still these Red Deer.

Another part of this zoo was a hedge maze. When I first plunged in, I expected it to be easy to complete but soon found I'd lost all sense of direction and was wandering blindly. When finally I found an exit I realized it was the way I had gotten in. The next time I went in, I was careful to keep my sense of direction, and made it out in less than thirty seconds. –Porter