The Wild Life

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The Wild Life

If you’re yearning for the wild life but haven’t a clue
about how to go about it, here’s a hint for you.
Gratify your need by visiting the zoo
to ogle hippopotami and maybe get a view
of zebra or a lion or a cheetah or a gnu.
Snap photos of a reindeer or a caribou.

See monkeys in their cages or an eagle in its aerie.
Hang out at the petting zoo if eagles are too scary.
Give the lambs sweet clover and all the ponies oats.
Pat their little heads and stroke their hairy coats.
Stop by aerated pools to touch a koi’s smooth scales,
keeping a proper distance from the killer whales.

In this modern world where violence is rife,
one need not act out to enjoy the wild life.
So put away your crossbow, your rifle or your knife
and head out to the game park with your kids and wife.
You need not stalk your game through the forest or the fens.
Better to hunt your wildlife through a camera  lens.

Prompt words today are aerate, scary, zoo, gratify and give.

14 thoughts on “The Wild Life”

  2. slmret's avatarslmret

    A strong message, strongly stated! These days, good zoos are successful at giving wild animals good homes compatible with their natural ones, and, either wild or in zoos, guns are not necessary tools for effective viewing and learning about the animals. Thank you for this post!

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    1. lifelessons's avatarlifelessons Post author

      I was torn, since I hate those little zoos with animals in cages too small, but increasingly, they are more like the Wild Animal park in San Diego, with the animals roaming free and people confined to trams that observe from above..so I’ve changed my mind. Just saw a film that depicted the South African hunt parks, however, where lions are purchased from “animal breeding farms” and confined to a pen for amateur game hunters to shoot with a crossbow and for men to finish off with rifles..Just horrible. What sport is there in this? And it is legal.

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      1. slmret's avatarslmret

        Like you, I don’t understand the sport in killing an animal at a hunt park, though I guess that’s better than killing in the wild — but only as long as the whole animal is used for food, etc, and not just the trophy head. In that case, it could be looked at as similar to our own practice of raising cattle for food, milk, etc. I also hate the little zoos with tiny cages for the animals — but the larger, newer zoos are creating habitats for the animals and caring for them more humanely than when we were growing up. PETA and other groups have fits whenever a zoo animal dies, but the creatures are living longer and more comfortably than they would normally. And the more progressive zoos are also doing some very creative and effective work in the conservation of endangered species.

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        1. lifelessons's avatarlifelessons Post author

          I think in the wild at least the animal has an even chance. In the video I saw they were in a pen, the inexperienced woman shot it with a crossbow and then the employee of the park had to shoot it to finish it off. Granted, this was in a movie but sounds like it was replicating conditions at some of the hunt clubs.

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  3. koolkosherkitchen's avatarkoolkosherkitchen

    While I completely agree with your last line, Judy, I have disliked Zoo’s since childhood as it has always made me sad that animals were kept in cages. Same goes for trained animals made to perform in circus. At the age of five, I managed to escape from my grandfather who took me to watch a then-famous lion tamer Margherita Bugrimova. They found me down by the cage, playing with a lion’s tale and telling him how sorry I was that he was in captivity. I think he (or his friends) took my meaning as a call for action. Years later, they tore Bugrimova into pieces, literally.

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