Jacksonville Zoo

[0nyxStation]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

We just came down from Savannah today to go to the zoo, and it was really a nice experience. Kudoes, you have a real treasure there.

Jacksonville does have a really nice Zoo.

[grayrunner]

I also find most zoos depressing. The JAX Zoo is much less like a prison than
this old privately run zoo in St Paul near where I worked and routinely
walked during lunch hour. The 12 by 20 steel bar cages with big cats
pacing back and forth was hard to watch, and then they had to be inside during
the long winter in a large echo chamber cellblock.

Weekday admittance was light and a large orangutan in a single cell
was usually sitting at the bars with a bored expression on his long face, and
after a bit he began to recognize me. We chatted in a way, I tossed some popcorn
which he disdained, and once a banana that he held in one huge hand and ate
out of politeness. The animals at least always looked well fed, probably for
behavior.

Once I had the opportunity to see this creature react to crowd when
a teacher led a busload of schoolgirls to his cage. His bored expression
as he scanned the crowd of yelling and laughing but instantly paused
at the sight of one girl in a wheelchair. The girl had some behavior disability
as well, making odd sounds, jerking movements of her face, expressions,
her hands. Most interesting was the ape's furrowed concentration as he
studied this unfortunate, until after the crowd left to more interesting
exhibits and recognized me as I approached. He looked at me, at the retreating
crowd, and for the first time made a series of urk urk, ape-like sounds
that definitely felt like he was asking me for an explanation!

I realized then there was a person inside hidden by physical attributes
just like the girl in the wheelchair and who are we to imprison him?

[Wunderkinder]

I have been to zoo's all over the world and find most of them very depressing. But the Jacksonville zoo is actually one of the best I have been to and I rank it in the top 10 zoo's that I have seen. Not as large as the San Diego Zoo or the National Zoo in DC or the St Louis Zoo in Forrest Park, but it looks like it has a more humane approach to the treatment of the animals than most of the zoo's in Europe and basically all of the zoo's in Asia.

[Keith-n-Jax]

Glad to hear some positives comments about the zoo, it is rather nice. The gardens there are really beautiful.

[0nyxStation]

Originally Posted by Keith-n-Jax

Glad to hear some positives comments about the zoo, it is rather nice. The gardens there are really beautiful.

Its better than a lot of Zoos in bigger cities. at least 5 I can think of.