Colombo Zoo
Click above to view photos from the Colombo Zoo, in Colombo, Sri Lanka
The zoo was pretty large, well laid out and had a wide variety of animals. I liked how the concrete/artificial aspects seemed minimal, i'm not sure if this was done on purpose but the abundance of vegetation gave it a less 'artificial' feel than some western zoos. There weren't many people there the day we went but that might have been because of the bad weather.
Zoos in the west have tried to move away from their traditional role - exhibiting exotic animals for public entertainment. Now they're more focused on things like education, research, repopulation and conservation. As far as I could tell, the Colombo Zoo wasn't that interested in education; most exhibits had species' names but nothing beyond that. I can't speak to their research or conservation activities but there wasn't any mention of that anywhere.
The facilities for the animals ranged in quality: the sloth bear and the chimps had large, open 'habitats'. The big cats were all crammed into small cages and they looked overweight and bored. The asian elephants are the most popular draw at the zoo, they have a structure built in a central location where people sat and watched them. I'm not sure why we sat and watched them, they weren't doing what elephants do in the wild. They were chained to columns and stood in place swaying from side to side. Once a day they're taken for a walk. The conditions of the elephants could stand to improve a great deal.
Anyways, the Zoo is a good place to spend half a day when you're in Colombo. I wish I had gone on one of the wildlife tours that are available in Sri Lanka. The island has a vast amount of diverse wildlife and I think I would have preferred to see it in the wild.
The zoo was pretty large, well laid out and had a wide variety of animals. I liked how the concrete/artificial aspects seemed minimal, i'm not sure if this was done on purpose but the abundance of vegetation gave it a less 'artificial' feel than some western zoos. There weren't many people there the day we went but that might have been because of the bad weather.
Zoos in the west have tried to move away from their traditional role - exhibiting exotic animals for public entertainment. Now they're more focused on things like education, research, repopulation and conservation. As far as I could tell, the Colombo Zoo wasn't that interested in education; most exhibits had species' names but nothing beyond that. I can't speak to their research or conservation activities but there wasn't any mention of that anywhere.
The facilities for the animals ranged in quality: the sloth bear and the chimps had large, open 'habitats'. The big cats were all crammed into small cages and they looked overweight and bored. The asian elephants are the most popular draw at the zoo, they have a structure built in a central location where people sat and watched them. I'm not sure why we sat and watched them, they weren't doing what elephants do in the wild. They were chained to columns and stood in place swaying from side to side. Once a day they're taken for a walk. The conditions of the elephants could stand to improve a great deal.
Anyways, the Zoo is a good place to spend half a day when you're in Colombo. I wish I had gone on one of the wildlife tours that are available in Sri Lanka. The island has a vast amount of diverse wildlife and I think I would have preferred to see it in the wild.
posted by N at 12:25 a.m.
5 Comments:
Hi Olinda,
I actually did visit the elephant orphanage, it was pretty awesome being so close to so many elephants. At the same time there were obvious problems, they hit the elephants sometimes to make them move and one old elephant was chained to a tree.
I think we visited the same buddhist temple (had the big yellow buddha inside next to a courtyard with the elephant outside?), the guy there told us that the elephant had killed two villagers and was taken in by monks who didn't want to see it killed. No idea if that's true but if it is, i guess i don't mind the chains as much.
I felt sort of bad after visiting this zoo too, but at the same time i feel guilty criticizing it because they obviously dont have the same resources that zoos in wealthy countries do... but yeah, it's not all bad, and hopefully when sri lanka gets its act together they can put some money into it. A good research zoo would have a lot to offer the island.
I request that the link to my xanga page be placed in a more accessible location than the small area to the right side of the page. Failure to do so will results in sanctions set forth by myself and the UN. Thank you for your time.
BTW: yea the elephants look sad and you don’t update enough. Skeet skeet skeet.
Ananthan,
My great Grandfather, Aubrey Weinman, was a major contributor to the Colombo zoo and he and his team were resposible for making the Colombo zoo one of the worlds finest in his time.
He wrote a book about his experiences entitled "My Personnal Ark" and it is interesting to read because it gives good insight into the design of the zoo at that time. You should also realise that we now know a little bit more about animals and their psychology than we did then! However, things change and your mum is correct - the zoo has been in better shape - the zoo was neglected for some time, mostly because of the problems that started in the late 60's and errupted in the early 70's, but people now seem to be working hard to get things up to were they were before. I have been told that the dancing elephants are back!
What is also a shame is that all the bungalows in the Yala and Wilpattu Parks are now destroyed. Buttuwa (?) Bungalow was a favourite for us in Yala - we used to be able to sit on the balcony and watch the local elephants as they came down to buttuwa rock to drink- though one had to be very quiet and certainly taking pictures with a flash was not recommended.
For us the visits to the game parks were special! At Willpatu we often stayed at a bungalow next to a tank (the name was Kalivillu I think) and sometimes when one went to the toilet one could find a leopard inside the facility (happened 2-3 times!) - however leopards are not really talkative so we never found out why they were there - there was no danger - both parties looked at each other in surprise with the human side quietly retreating away - leaving the leopard happily alone in the toilet - well first in - first served!!
I think we only had 2 scary moments in the 13 years that I lived in SL - at least from the non two legged animals - In Yala we stopped to observe an elephant calf but we inadverently separated mother and child - mum on left of track, calf on right and we were in the middle - the elephant mum got quite peeved and we just got away in a landrover - elephants at full speed are quite fast and amazingly quiet - she started her charge in the scrub that is typical of Yala - we didnt hear a thing until my mum turned aroung and saw the calf's mum with trunk raised
bearing down on us. If an elephant is after you with trunk raised out of harms way it considers the affair pretty serious so it is best to get out quickly!
The second time was trekking from the car park at the Horton Plain reserve
to Worlds End - somehow my dad managed to convince the ranger that our dog could come along as well - anyway - off we went, but some clown had swapped the direction indicator, so we were heading to the nearest village rather than towards Worlds End - anyway after about 30 minutes of trekking through dense thorn bush and scrub the dog got nervous - we took hint and turned back only to find that a leopard had been tracking us for some time (fresh pug marks on path behind us) - so we went home and I have never seen Worlds End!
In short Sri Lanka is for us a very dear place and I hope to return as a visitor to SL one day soon. It was very nice to see some of your pictures - it brought back some old memories so it seemed proper to share some of our memories with you
best regards
Keith Weinman
Thank you Anathan.
Keith Weinman thank you also for your comments, my Grandfather was also Aubery Weinman. I have never met you. where do you live?
Tamara Thorpe ( nee weinamn)
nice picture!! I want to go to colombo zoo! your description was very interesting!
Now I am in apartment in Buenos Aires and the zoo in Palermo is amazing!! i love animals!
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