Recently we went to the Omaha Zoo. I’m often torn at zoos – I recognize their conservation value, and at a well-run zoo, the animals have a decent quality of life.
Still, primates get me. I am one, after all. Could I imagine being kept in an enclosure that small for my entire life?
I find that the baby animals will play, no matter where they are. They seem happy, and frolic around. In the orangutan area, two babies played. In the gorilla, two young ones played. The adults? Just sat there looking zoned out. Maybe it was nap time…Maybe.
I’m a sensitive soul and thought of the slightest hurt for another living creature makes me want to cry. Seriously. I can’t tell you the number of times I ache in my heart when I think of a lonely, hungry, hurt, or sad cognizant animal. Including basic animals, like squirrels. And turtles. And of course humans. For all my education, for all my spiritual explorations, I still don’t understand why we have emotional hurt and fear. I am getting depressed just writing this, so I’ll switch gears.
Please stop shouting, “Look at the monkeys!” Sometimes they are monkeys. But chances are you’re probably looking at an ape. There is a difference genetically and behaviorally.
Easy way to tell them apart – monkeys have tails, apes do not.
For the record – gibbons (top photo), humans, gorillas (middle photo), chimps, and orangutans (bottom photo) are apes. NOT MONKEYS.
