Sisi slowly browses through the yellow pages, looking not for
a phone number but for peanuts and sunflower seeds hidden in the directory.
Mali plays with a block of ice containing apples and oranges,
crushing it with her feet to get at the fruit.
Sisi, a 23-year-old orangutan, and Mali, a 33-year-old
elephant, are two of a number of mammals and birds undergoing behavioral therapy
at Manila Zoo as part of a program to combat the stress and boredom of living in
captivity.
The program is Manila’s answer to criticism that conditions
at its 49-year-old zoo, among the oldest in Asia, are dismal – so dismal that
other zoos refuse to send their animals there.
"As you can see, some animals here are living for almost 20
years and they are well taken care of," said Deogracias Manimbo, the zoo
administrator.
"We feed them well and we are doing our best to improve our
facilities," he said.
His zoo houses 688 animals, mostly birds and reptiles and a
number of indigenous species such as the bear cat and long-tailed macaques. But
there are few big animals, and a proposed animal swap with other zoos failed.
An animal rights group blocked the transfer of elephants and
giraffes from Tanzania to the Philippines in exchange for crocodiles, warning
that animals in Manila Zoo were housed in cramped and barren cages and exposed
to sweltering heat.
"All confined animals suffer from profound boredom – some so
severely that it can lead to self-mutilation and self-destructive behavior,"
said the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in a letter to the
Tanzanian government.
The row pits animal rights activists against zoo officials
who argue that the animals are being treated properly, and that their
establishment offers a cheap form of recreation in a poor country.
Donald Manalastas, a veterinarian, said Manila Zoo only
acquires animals that are bred in captivity, not plucked from the wild. He also
rejected calls by PETA to release the zoo animals back into the wild, saying
they are better off in the zoo.
"We strongly believe that these animals that have been
‘hand-fed’ and housed for a period of time will not survive if released in the
wild, for they have lost their natural ability to hunt food," Manalastas said.
But he said maintaining a public zoo is a challenge and
unruly visitors often give zoo officials a headache.
Junk food and candy wrappers or plastic bottles can be seen
in some animal cages as visitors often break the "no animal feeding" rule and
taunt the animals to get their attention.
Some animals in the zoo have died from intestinal obstruction
after eating plastic, Manalastas said.
The zoo, open daily from 8 am to 6 pm, charges non-Manila residents 40 pesos
($0.95) and Manila residents only 20 pesos. It remains a popular choice for
educational field trips and the number of visitors averages about 2,300 a day.
– Reuters
