Humans Visiting Animals vs Animals Visiting Humans
When the author was growing up as a high school student in San Diego, one of his favorite family vacation spots was the city's fame Wild Animal Park. It is a place of massive enclosures, simulating the wild African savanna in a highly accessible way. Around bushes where lions and tigers chase (introduced) antelopes and deer are human spectators being carried in neat little trains, equipped with loudspeakers that constantly inform passengers of the animals and sights of a faraway land with little human habitation.
Without a doubt, many youngsters living outside Africa are first introduced to majestic beasts of the African savanna in similar fashions. From the material comforts of a man-made zoo, where excessive commercialization means one is never too far away from another overpriced restaurant, kitschy souvenir shop, or curious tourist, one would first see in real life those already widely romanticized features of the savanna's inhabitants. That first introduction, for many, may become a hobby, or even an obsession, one that can no longer be satisfied by an amusement park.
Instead of staring from the artificial confines of some man-made park, they now want to see the beasts up close in their natural habitats, directly in those faraway lands. Fortunately or unfortunately, the reality of a middle-of-nowhere African savanna cannot be any more different from a Wild Animal Park in the middle of a developed urban area. There are no fancy restaurants (a staff canteen acts as a surprisingly suitable alternative), and no trains or buses to ferry tourists around different areas (it is all self-drive on barely passable roads).
There are definitely no constantly present verbal and written information on the animals and their environments, unless one is willing to hire a local guide, many of whom risk or even lose their very lives to wild animals in order to eek out a living inside the remotely located parks. About the only similarity between a National Park-designated savanna and a zoo is the ticket booths and welcome signs at the park entrance. The fact that the animals are wild rather than kept in cages does not stop humans from charging other humans money to see them.
But the very lack of human-friendly facilities seem to make the animals feel much less awkward to approach these weird two-legged creatures. In a real African savanna, one can easily find an elephant, an antelope, or a zebra hanging out next to simple overnight lodging, and not see the situation as anything extraordinary or even particularly dangerous. The African savanna does not belong to the humans, so humans, like all other animals, are just one type of creature living with others side-by-side, no more and no less.
In fact, because human presence is so limited and confined to a relatively small, non-moving area within the savanna (especially so when the savanna is termed a "National Park"), often it seems like it is the animals who have traveled long distances distances to come see the humans, rather than the humans traveling in their cars to search out the animals. If the animals did not want visitors, they can simply melt into endless fields of tall grasses and bushes, supplying their human visitors with endless frustrations.
The humans, in contrast, will always be where they are expected to be, in their little wooden houses surrounded by their material possessions. This is not to say, however, the animals must be happier with the freedom of roaming in their African savanna, unimpeded by human obstructions for the most part. The wilderness is probably much tougher for the animals than they are for the casual human visitors with their cars and wooden houses. Even predators at the pinnacle of the food chain can go without a proper meal for days at a time and herbivores can find their lives ending at any moment.
Animals live uncomfortably short and brutal lives, fending off against constant threats of natural disasters, hungry predators, or human hunters with sinister intentions. In comparison, animals in zoos have it pretty good. They have pre-cut, cleaned, and overall well-prepared, nutritious meals at set locations and set hours everyday. They need not worry about preserving energy to catch those meals, and fear about going hungry. All they need in exchange is abandon a nomadic life on the wild African plains. A good trade-off? Perhaps, but the humans seem to be too fixated on the "real" life on the savanna to bother thinking about such an issue anyways.
Without a doubt, many youngsters living outside Africa are first introduced to majestic beasts of the African savanna in similar fashions. From the material comforts of a man-made zoo, where excessive commercialization means one is never too far away from another overpriced restaurant, kitschy souvenir shop, or curious tourist, one would first see in real life those already widely romanticized features of the savanna's inhabitants. That first introduction, for many, may become a hobby, or even an obsession, one that can no longer be satisfied by an amusement park.
Instead of staring from the artificial confines of some man-made park, they now want to see the beasts up close in their natural habitats, directly in those faraway lands. Fortunately or unfortunately, the reality of a middle-of-nowhere African savanna cannot be any more different from a Wild Animal Park in the middle of a developed urban area. There are no fancy restaurants (a staff canteen acts as a surprisingly suitable alternative), and no trains or buses to ferry tourists around different areas (it is all self-drive on barely passable roads).
There are definitely no constantly present verbal and written information on the animals and their environments, unless one is willing to hire a local guide, many of whom risk or even lose their very lives to wild animals in order to eek out a living inside the remotely located parks. About the only similarity between a National Park-designated savanna and a zoo is the ticket booths and welcome signs at the park entrance. The fact that the animals are wild rather than kept in cages does not stop humans from charging other humans money to see them.
But the very lack of human-friendly facilities seem to make the animals feel much less awkward to approach these weird two-legged creatures. In a real African savanna, one can easily find an elephant, an antelope, or a zebra hanging out next to simple overnight lodging, and not see the situation as anything extraordinary or even particularly dangerous. The African savanna does not belong to the humans, so humans, like all other animals, are just one type of creature living with others side-by-side, no more and no less.
In fact, because human presence is so limited and confined to a relatively small, non-moving area within the savanna (especially so when the savanna is termed a "National Park"), often it seems like it is the animals who have traveled long distances distances to come see the humans, rather than the humans traveling in their cars to search out the animals. If the animals did not want visitors, they can simply melt into endless fields of tall grasses and bushes, supplying their human visitors with endless frustrations.
The humans, in contrast, will always be where they are expected to be, in their little wooden houses surrounded by their material possessions. This is not to say, however, the animals must be happier with the freedom of roaming in their African savanna, unimpeded by human obstructions for the most part. The wilderness is probably much tougher for the animals than they are for the casual human visitors with their cars and wooden houses. Even predators at the pinnacle of the food chain can go without a proper meal for days at a time and herbivores can find their lives ending at any moment.
Animals live uncomfortably short and brutal lives, fending off against constant threats of natural disasters, hungry predators, or human hunters with sinister intentions. In comparison, animals in zoos have it pretty good. They have pre-cut, cleaned, and overall well-prepared, nutritious meals at set locations and set hours everyday. They need not worry about preserving energy to catch those meals, and fear about going hungry. All they need in exchange is abandon a nomadic life on the wild African plains. A good trade-off? Perhaps, but the humans seem to be too fixated on the "real" life on the savanna to bother thinking about such an issue anyways.
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