Bristol Zoo, the fifth oldest zoo in the world, to close after 186 years

The zoo appears to be losing its charm. Children used to be eagerly waiting to go to the zoo and see the wild animals. However, in the age of smartphones and TV, they now have many more options and visiting the zoo is no longer attractive. This is borne out by the closure of the186 year old Bristol Zoo in Clifton. It seems this is the fifth oldest zoo in the world. There are many original Victorian buildings in its premises. These are the gatehouse, the old giraffe house and its monkey temple. One of the reasons cited by the Bristol Zoological Society for the closure is the financial pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The society plans to focus its resources on its site in south Gloucestershire. This site was not open to the visitor but its use was restricted to breeding and quarantine purposes. In fact, it was a sort of nursery for Bristol Zoo’s botanical gardens, apart from growing fodder for its animals. In 2008, the society put up plans to the council for constructing a walking safari park. That led to the Wild Place Project five years later. Staff at the zoo are sad to be leaving the famous Bristol city site. It retains its Victorian walls. Bristol Zoo closing for good after 186 years as it's hammered by pandemic. The Bristol Zoo was originally a sort of menagerie. Those associated with the zoo are looking forward to the conservation opportunities that would be available in the more spacious facilities in Gloucestershire.

Dr Grainne McCabe is head of field conservation and science. When asked what she is most excited about with the big move, she replied - “One of the best things I think about Wild Place is it will be much more like what I feel like when I go in the forest in the wild to see the animals. She might walk into …. you may see the animal, you may not. She admits some of the animals might struggle with the change. However, it will be a much, much more enjoyable experience for them. This is because they would be in a more natural enclosure. The overall objective is to get the animals linked to the conservation work.

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Chimpanzees escape from Oasis Park in Canary Island and attack staff members

#oasispark #Fuerteventura #chimpanzees It turned out to be a chaotic situation when three chimpanzees broke out from their cage in Oasis Park – a zoo in Canary Islands. British holidaymakers were caught by surprise and the primates attacked the staff members. When tranquilizers failed to contain them, they were shot – two died while the third is seriously injured.
Tis has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 28 June 2015.

The three animals were called King, Cheeta and Felipa – out of them, King and Felipa, are dead and Cheeta is undergoing emergency treatment from the vets. They had been at the park for over 20 years. It seems King and Cheeta had been rescued in 1988 from a street photographer and Felipa had been saved from animal traffickers by the Service for the Protection of Nature.
The Fuerteventura Oasis Park had recently received a TripAdvisor certificate of excellence and its owners have termed the incident as ‘the saddest day in the history of the park since it opened its doors in 1985’.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Hippo escapes from Tbilisi zoo - subdued with tranquilizer gun

Subsequent to heavy rainfall and flooding of the Vere River, the capital Tbilisi saw at least eight people dead and many more missing apart from wild animals like tigers, lions, bears and wolves that have escaped to freedom from the zoo.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 14 June 2015.

The heavy rainfall swept away dozens of buildings and cars and three of the zoo workers are among the dead with 10 more people are missing. A hippopotamus that had broken free was cornered in one of the city's main squares and subdued with a tranquilizer gun.
It seems, a few other animals have been located, but no one knows for certain about how many of them are on the loose. The people have been advised to remain indoors while the zoo workers try to locate them. They are using helicopters and are circling the city of around 1.1 million people.
A preliminary estimate has put the extent of damage at $10m according to the vice mayor of Tbilisi.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Z – The alphabet that comes last but is, by no means, the least

In my school days, I would struggle to find words starting with the last letter of the English alphabets namely ‘Z’ – my mind would go blank after zoo, zebra and Zulu.
The zoo is the abbreviation of a zoological garden which a large enclosure, suitably protected by fences and gorges where four legged animals was on view for the benefit of their curious two legged counterparts.
The zebra was one unique four legged specimen that is seen in the zoos and it remains a mystery even today – does it sport white stripes on a black background or vice-versa?
The next word, Zulu, would be used as a common noun to denote tribal characters who roamed the jungles of Africa, their ears and nose pierced with tiny human bones signifying that they belonged to a tribe who relished human tit-bits for breakfast, lunch and dinner!!
Later I came to know about a person called Zorro, a master swordsman capable of hiding his identity by just putting a patch over his eyes. With a sudden swish of his sword, he would leave his trademark imprint of ‘Z’ on all those who dared cross his path.
And, then came the zombies – human shaped robots controlled by unseen elements. They were there before anyone had ever thought in terms of ‘Star Trek’ and the likes.
In our youth, we were fascinated by the zip. It was associated with fasteners and, starting with purses and bags, these one day graduated to become a part and parcel of our apparel. Buttons on trousers became outdated, jackets and evening gowns switched over to zips. The zip, short form of zipper, was more convenient to use. Initially made of metal, the manufacturers switched over to nylon zips! Necessity is the mother of invention, they say. How right they are!!
The latest zip is, of course, the zipouch – to keep the veggies inside, zip up the pouch and store it in the fridge! Of course, the word zip carries a different meaning to the computer geeks. ‘Zip a file’ means to compress it into a fraction of its original size. As and when required, the file can be ‘unzipped’ to its normal size.
Zap is another favorite of computer pros – it means deleting the contents of a file while retaining its database structure.
After zip and zap, we naturally come to zoom! All TV sets have the options to view the offerings in either the normal or the zoom mode. Zoom means to magnify and is also the name of an Indian TV channel.