Dire Need for a Savior

I realized that for Husna, we have brought her to many interesting places in her toddler years. Unlike Husna, Huda is slightly under privilege. To reduce the guilt, we decided to bring the children to Zoo Negara on the first week of May 2009.

We last visited it 2 years ago, and we have discovered that the condition is actually deteriorating, instead of improving. The funny part was, I saw the banner outside the zoo saying "Towards being a world class zoo", or something like that. Unfortunately I didn't take a snap of that banner.

What a shame. Have they done any benchmarking and improvement actions before displaying the banner to the public? As a Malaysian, my "water face" would drop significantly upon meeting tourists who were at awed with the zoo's dismal condition.

Being part of national attraction and mostly advertised place of interest to visit in KL, something drastic really needs to be done to save this place, and the poor animals. What a pity.

The main entrance could have been painted to make it more lively. From far you can note already how old and not so grand welcoming at the doorstep.

With RM15 fee for adults and RM8 for kids, I thought that upon entering, we'd be given a map. Sorry ma'am. The map cost RM2, should you decide to plan your journey inside. The tram is also not free. What we did was to snap a picture of the wall map, then plan our journey from there. How pathetic! This is not a "no frill" zoo, where every need has to be purchased at extra fee. Mcm nak tiru Air Asia business pulak.

The elephants were very hungry I presumed, by begging for food from visitors.

Poor lion - old, dirty, thin and very haggard looking. Just look at the water in the drain. Yucks! Where are all the zoo cleaners?

Pak Belang taking a brief dip.

Huda was excited to see the giraffes, but the long untrimmed grasses were really a turn off to the eyes, eyeing for good view of nature.

Same for the camels.

The haggard looking monkeys.

Information from the wall on Orang Utan captivated attention of many foreign tourists. See the filth on the wall surface.

Mr. Rhino almost lost behind the untrimmed bushes.

Nak kuih Badak Berendam? Wonder how the old Malay generation could have spotted the hippos and named the animals as such. Memang kena!

Hidden honey bear. You have to make some noises to make it awake and move.

Hungry cows. Feed them anything, they'll swallow.

Heydedoo Mr. Kangaroos.

Overall, I think Zoo Melaka is much better, since I've never been to Zoo Taiping. But even Zoo Melaka needs a LOT of improvements.

It's good that the management of Zoo Negara has a vision to be among the world class zoo. But vision alone is not enough. With the hike in entrance fee, visitors expect something more, especially the basic needs of all the animals - clean cages, clean body, trimmed and clean surrounding, etc. Otherwise, close the zoo and transfer the animals elsewhere. Where? Like in the Perak Assembly Hall maybe? Hahaha.

Next trip shall be to Singapore Zoo. Now that's what we call a world class zoo to be benchmarked with.