Yahoos and Boohoos!
By Christine C. Rivero

AAAAAAIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAA!!!!!

Yep, a week spent visiting zoos in Metro Manila and we're just about ready to give Tarzan, Jane and George of the Jungle a run for their banana peels.

We figure that with all the couch potato comforts we have nowadays, nothing less than a 500-foot tall carabao rampaging through your town would get you out of your house this summer (Ngi, hindi ko kamag-anak 'yon!--Guyito).

But there was a time when summer also meant visiting the zoo without your classmates pushing to get a better view of the elephant's toenails.

What we wanted to find out during our weeklong zoo visits was whether the zoos were still fun and exciting enough to lift ourselves off the couch for.

And now, tan-ta-tan, the verdict.

Good zoo, bad visitors

The Manila Zoo is the country's biggest and oldest zoo. It first opened in 1959 and over the years it has gone through a lot of changes. In the early '80s, it was completely depressing with a lot of the cages empty and even the few animals left behind looked unhappy. Around 10 years ago, the Manila Zoo started to undergo a major makeover and now it's trying its best to someday be among the best zoos in the world.

Yahoo! The Manila Zoo is perking up and it has a dedicated staff, which includes five zoo veterinarians on-call 24 hours, to thank. It also owes a lot to the My Zoo volunteer group which started to look out for the zoo and its 617 animal residents in January this year. 

Because the zoo is so old, many of the enclosures look a bit ricketty-racketty but slowly the staff and volunteers are changing that.

They also regularly clean the cages and pens so the animals stay comfy and the unavoidable "icky-poo-poo" smell doesn't build up.

Best of all, there are enough animals, furry, feathered, and scaly alike, to make you feel like you've gone on a regular safari. There's Sally the giraffe who's so gentle, zookeepers can feed her a carrot from their lips, Cyrus the zebra who comes running to you when you call his name (he's the only zebra in the pen who'll answer to his name) and Mali, the mango-loving elephant. Don't forget to also visit Nancy, the chimp, Daktari the tiger who likes to play hide-and-seek, and Joseph, the 70-year-old crocodile who is STILL GROWING.

More fun things are in store for visitors in the next few years like a butterfly garden and a petting zoo where you can cuddle rabbits, guinea pigs and even birds! They also now have an area where you can celebrate a real wild birthday right in the middle of the zoo. 

Boohoo! Sadly, it's the people who visit the Manila Zoo who ruin the fun in the place. They insist on feeding the newly planted bushes to theanimals and sometimes they don't stop even when the zookeepers tell them not to. Worst of all, they sometimes feed animals things that are bad for them. Sally's sister, Molly, died in February this year because someone fed her plastic. 

When we were there, we caught a man giving Cici the Orangutan a cigarette! It's really mean what these people do and we wish they'd stop.

The Manila Zoo on Adriatico Street, corner President Quirino Avenue in Manila is open everyday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Entrance fee for kids is P4 while adults go in for P6. You can call them up at 525-7061. 

A rescue center first, a zoo next

Folks in Quezon City also have a zoo in their midst with the Parks and Wildlife Rescue Center and Mini-Zoo. This is where the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) leave animals confiscated from smugglers and illegal collectors to be cared for. Most of the animals are in quarantine, meaning they are being kept away and watched for infectious diseases but there are still a lot of animals, mostly exotic birds, for visitors to see.

Yahoo! Even though the place is very small, the new zoo officer in charge, Dr. Rhoda De Veyra plans to make the most of it. The cages are always cleaned and she allows vines to grow over some of them because, she says, even if they're unsightly to visitors, they're a lot homier for the animals who are used to greens anyway. They also take away the food trays after feeding so the scraps don't spoil and attract unwanted pests like bugs and rats.

Next year, they plan to move to a bigger area within the park to be called "Lungsod ng Kalikasan." Dr. De Veyra has big dreams for the place as she plans on putting more plants and perches with little waterfalls for the birds' enclosure and to put more hanging bars and playthings for the monkeys and other animals.

Once all the animals are moved to Lungsod ng Kalikasan, Dr. De Veyra says the mini-zoo will be converted into a wider quarantine area. 
In the meantime, best sites in the mini-zoo are the hornbills and egrets with their magnificently long beaks, the huge Burmese pythons and the small peek-a-boo squirrels. 

Boohoo! It's the visitors again. We caught a man trying to hit a beautiful red hornbill with his handkerchief. Why, why, why, people do that, we'll never know. Some people also went in through the exit instead of the entrance. This isn't just against the rules, it's dangerous for the animals because these people didn't wipe their feet at the footbath in the entrance. A footbath is this mat soaked with antiseptics that kills germs stuck to your shoe that could be fatal to the animals.

Dr. De Veyra also begs, "Please don't tease the animals. Do you like it when someone calls you, 'Pangit! Pangit!'?" 

She adds, "Please stop calling the animals names. If you really want to teach the birds to talk, why not teach them, how to say "Hello" or "Magandang araw!"

Located at the corner of Quezon Avenue and the Elliptical Road in Quezon City, the Park is open every day, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The entrance fee of P6 for kids and P8 for adults gives visitors access to all the attractions in the park. Their telephone number is 924-6031 to 35. 

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Manny Tangco, the owner of the Malabon Zoo and Aquarium, put up his zoo in 1993 to fulfill a childhood dream. Even though the zoo is less than 10 years old, it's become quite famous partly because of the love Mr. Tangco gives the animals he houses.

Yahoo! We were so relieved to find that the Malabon had enough staff, courteous too, who kept a close eye on the animals, making sure no one was being nasty to them. It probably also helped that Mr. Tangco put up these inspirational signs, telling people to be kind to the environment, all around the zoo.

The zoo is also clean (Yey!!! All the Metro zoos were clean!) and the lush trees all over the property gave the zoo a pleasant shade. This was the only zoo we visited which also had an aquarium. We got to see large arrowanas and enormous pacus along with dozens of other colorful water denizens. Mr. Tangco also designed the aquarium exhibit to use sunlight instead of electricity to make it more environment-friendly. He adds that when they clean the aquariums, they also use the old aquarium water to water the plants. Talk about zero-waste!

The Malabon Zoo also boasts of robust bears, a big crocodile aquarium where you can actually watch adult crocs swim, sleek lionesses, playful orangutans, birds of prey and other exotic fowl of every feather imaginable (including ostriches!) as well as some very regal tigers. 
Sometimes, Mr. Tangco lets one of the younger tigers out, Tiger Erap, for the kids to pat. 

Boohoo! While we really admire the Malabon Zoo and Aquarium, we think the place is still too small for big animals like lions and tigers and bears. Many of the animals are also pregnant now, Mr. Tangco, informs us, so that might make their cramped spaces even more crowded.

Then we saw one caretaker opening a bag of cereals and giving it, with the bag, to the orangutans. After the sad incident with Molly the Giraffe at the Manila Zoo, we would like to suggest that the caretakers take the cereal out of the bag before giving it to the orangs.

Some of the exhibits could also use clearer labels and we feel that the Centennial Dinosaur Exhibit could do with a bit of a face-lift. The papier-mâché dinos already look old and dusty. Maybe they can convert the exhibit into another home for reptiles or other small nocturnal creatures.

No. 1, Gov. Pascual Avenue, Potrero, Malabon, is where the Malabon Zoo and Aquarium is at. They're open every day from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and the entrance fee for both kids and adults is P40. Give 'em a ring at 361-3069 to 64.

What the Zookeepers ask:

• 

   Don't feed the animals. The animals are well-fed and they get a balanced diet with vitamins included. If you really want to feed the animals, you can donate fresh fruit and vegetables to the zoo office. 
  (Note: Giraffes are especially sensitive to eating grass just pulled straight from the ground. The grass may be coated with sand and this sand accumulates in their belly and one day that might kill them.)

•  Stop leaving your pets at the zoo! Both the Manila Zoo and Parks and Wildlife Mini-Zoo complain of people who leave monkeys, bayawaks (monitor lizards), and other wild pets at their doorstep. In the first place, these animals should have never been taken as pets. They also ask that people stop leaving behind their turtles. Both zoos now have more than 300 turtles and they're running out of places to keep them.

Why not form your own zoo club?