Description: Wherein Marty and Heather stay with friends in Los Angeles
(Marty's Report):
Decided to go to the LA Zoo today, so started by finding Russel's restaurant in downtown Pasadena for breakfast, a lively and friendly joint. Then we found our way to the zoo, and started with the Condor rescue center, which is made mostly for kids but was very interesting. Incredible the energy we put in to trying to clean up our own messes.
The zoo itself was a great space, seemingly updated from a more primitive earlier version of the zoo. We spent maybe 4 hours there total, seeing everything. We were particularly taken by the enormous carrion birds and eagles, and the elephant with the "sterotypical behavior" of head bobbing, which I had to look up while sitting there, learning that it's a symptom of being in captivity and not living a good elephant life. Heather cried a lot, feeling the "grief and grandeur" of life.
Then from there, we went up to Griffith Observatory, getting there a bit before dusk. We wandered through the building, and watched a film in the Leonard Nimoy theater on the history of the building and its renovation. It was a fascinating description of the monumental efforts to restore and improve this beautiful old place. We got out into the view of the city at night, which was astounding. The LA that I've experienced these last years is so different from when I was UCLA, so rich and so stripped of my 20 year old self's angst and pain.
We headed back home and we all ordered Thai food, chatted about our days and life, then went to bed.
(Heather's Report):
Zoo Day
I don’t really know LA all that well. So I don’t really know what to do. I was all for the Griffith Observatory and Marty also suggested the LA Zoo. I’m usually all for zoos and stars and we decided on both. So we drove up to the LA Zoo which is below the big mountain where the observatory is.
We wandered in and started looking around. We first went into the California Condor discovery center for children where an enthusiastic biologist/naturalist showed us around and told us about the Condor. Big ass bird!!! I was pleased to know a lot already about the program and the troubles around genetic diversity. I did get a little teary around the whole thing. Because we are a really horrible, stupid, destructive species. And in a way, we are willing to monumentalize our monumental fuck-ups, as Marty said about Manzanar. We will do what we can after realizing what the hell we did. Sometimes. Sometimes we keep doing it. But sectors of the human population try.
We wandered through the zoo, a fairly well put together zoo although “cramped”, somewhat old style, with not so much space. Certain animals had more space, like a new space for the elephant or the two lions. But still not a huge amount. Or at least the mythical amounts of space that I’ve heard of at the San Diego zoo. Supposedly that’s the pinnacle of zoos.
Marty went to look at the elephant in his big space while I registered for classes online. Yes, technology rocks! He came back and told me that elephants bob their heads when they are stressed or bored, a compensatory behavior. I had seen that when I walked up before I sat down to register. He’s continuing to explain this phenomenon when I basically start crying.
Now, I’m a fan of zoos, sort of. I know how important they are especially now. They have opportunities to protect some species from total extinction, they all have genetic diversity programs which is really, really the most important role they have. They are, in a way, limited conservation agencies. And animals of this nature weren’t meant to be kept in ways like this. Zoos have histories of cruelty around the keeping of animals, accusations that they don’t really care about conservation of animals or even education of the public. And so I’m sitting on my bench, Grief and Grandeur racking my heart.
I recovered enough to move on through the zoo but eventually we encountered a blocked off area but standing on the outside of the tape, we could see into the caged area of the snow leopard. And he/she is pacing back and forth, constantly, in an almost desperate fashion, along the fence line. Marty mentioned that he saw the SF zoo snow leopard doing the same thing. And I very much love the big cats, especially the snow leopard (threatened in the wild) and the amur leopard (almost gone in the wild), so I’m now crying again, sobbing quietly as we watch. A keeper came out with a bowl of meat, carefully pushing meat through the holes in the chain link fence for the cat to take, speaking quietly to it. And back and forth it quickly paced. Sometimes taking some of the meat, sometimes ignoring it to go back and forth along the fence line. And thus I stand there, struggling to embrace the Grief side and hold the Grandeur side as well, when it is so easy to say “How horrible are humans! Look at this travesty!” but I know better, even in that moment. I know that this leopard may be “traded” to another zoo for breeding (in fact, the enclosure may have been closed off due to offspring, as there was a photo of a small kitten on the fence), to preserve genetic diversity. But I also know that the offspring may not be released into the wild. Re-introductions often don’t do well. Some programs have had some success, like the CA Condor program from above. But it’s difficult. And yet, we do try.
harpy eagles
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