Harpy Eagles at the Guyana Zoo

In today’s Chronicle, there was a rather nice feature about the two Harpy eagles that can be found in the zoo. It appears as though these harpy’s have been living together at the zoo for the past 57 years (imagine birds can live together longer than our president and his ‘wife’).

Anybody who has seen these eagles though in the last few years know that they look sick, struggling, mellow, without life it appears but what can one expect after being forced to live in such a small cage for so long. I can't even begin to think when last it was since either of those birds flew. Imagine being a bird and not able to fly, that is what we have subjected these animals to.

These are proud, strong birds that thrive in the wild and if the zoo was serious about making them an attraction to the public and taking care of the birds, then long ago they would have gotten them a bigger, better cage. As it is now and have been for a while, these birds are punishing. The just stand on their perch all day and stare. Harpy’s can be found in this country, why can’t we get a few younger looking birds in the zoo (not in that small cage of course)

I’m not sure when, but didn’t the German people give a ton of money to provide a proper habitat for these majestic creatures. Can the nice people over at the zoo say something about that? The current cage apart from being too small is way at the front of the zoo where the noise and traffic are definite disturbances to them.

When an animal is taken from the wild, and placed in a zoo, they should at least be placed in a habitat that appears as their natural home or as close to it as possible. What then are those frickin birds doing there? I’m sure a harpy in the Kanuku mountains doesn’t have to put up with constant, noisy traffic all day that those at the Guyana zoo has to endure all day, every day for over 50 years.

The zoo needs an urgent make-over; its standards have been allowed to fall for too long. For all the talk about the great animals that can be found in the land, the Guyana zoo is a horrible let down.

A Visit to the Botanical Gardens

Some friends and I paid a trip to the Botanical Gardens/Zoo this past weekend and boy were we in dismay.  Seriously, why is it called the Botanical Gardens?  It should actually be called the Bush, Weeds and more Bush Sanctuary.  It’s that bad!  If unsightly greenery were to take over the world then this place just might be their headquarters for world domination.  And what’s with all that crane shit in the water?  Hmm, I’m sure the manatees don’t really like that.  I wonder when this place will return to it’s former glory?  I’ve been waiting for years, yet I haven’t seen any changes.  I’m sure Habeeb Khan will get a fence for his huge gate long before any improvements are made to the Botanical Gardens.

After venturing around the grounds a bit, we decided to head into the actual zoo.  Boy was that a major mistake.  Friends, a word of advice – NEVER VISIT THE GUYANA ZOO!  Where the fuck were animals?  I saw a vulture that looked as if it probably was older than Methuselah, some battered macaws and a weird thing that was eating its own tail.  I don’t give the poor creature wrong – life must be pretty hard in there and maybe he just wanted to end the misery by committing suicide.  Then came the biggest shock of them all – a caged cow.  A FRIGGIN CAGED COW!  This must be, single-handedly, one of the worst things ever done by Guyanese people.  In all, it took us less than 8 minutes to traverse the path into and out of the zoo.  

I’ve made a plan next I want to see some Guyanese wildlife – I’ll pay a visit to one of the meetings of the National Assembly.  We’ve got a whole lot of beasts there just ready to bare their fangs at innocent prey.  Why I didn’t think of this sooner … I don’t know.