Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1019057
24 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 AUGUST 2018 OPINION DID I ever mention that my earliest childhood ambition was to become a zoo-keeper? Actually no, wait: there was an earlier one. According to fam- ily legend, I was asked (aged four or thereabouts) 'what I wanted to be when I grew up'. Without any hesitation what- soever, I replied: 'an animal'. Well, I'm pleased to report that I lived up to that early promise. I grew up to be a specimen of 'Homo sapiens sapiens': a somewhat ob- scure, nondescript branch of the primate family, granted... but an 'animal' nonetheless. Still, it was not exactly what I had in mind. By 'ani- mal', what I actually meant was: 'any animal other than a human being'. But at one point I must have transferred that ambition to the next-best thing... probably after discovering that there are no University courses that can qualify you to become a professional spider monkey, tree-frog, Himalayan marmot, or lesser small-eared fruit-bat. Like so many other things in life, I suppose it's just something you have to be born into... All the same: if I couldn't be the animal of my choice, I could always choose a career which would place me in close proximity to it. It start- ed with a visit to Richmond Park Zoo in the mid-1970s – which I still vividly recall in almost alarming detail – and progressed to an obsession with books and documenta- ries about wildlife in general. So it was settled: a zoo- keeper was the life for me. At one point I even joined the Dodo Club, founded by Gerald Durrell: whose 'Beasts in My Belfry' quickly overtook 'My Family and Other Animals' as that au- thor's most profound literary opus. (Truth be told, at that age I couldn't give a hoot about Gerald Durrell's fam- ily; it was the 'other animals' that interested me. Larry, Leslie, Margo and even Ger- ald himself just kept getting in the way...) 'Beasts in My Belfry', on the other hand, is not only more about animals than a people, but it is also spe- cifically about zoos: build- ing them, stocking them, maintaining them... and also justifying their existence, in the face of mounting scepti- cism about keeping animals in captivity solely for human enjoyment. Until that point I had never stopped to think about why people choose to open and run such facilities in the first place. The only thing I knew was that I loved animals and wanted to get a closer look at them: and short of travel- ling to places like Kenya or the Amazon jungle, the only real option was to go to the zoo. Only it wasn't an option in Malta at the time; unless you count San Anton Gardens in Attard, which at one point was home to around two or three camels, a flock of mountain goats, a few green monkeys and at least one silver fox. From this perspective, I can perfectly understand why some people are so doggedly determined to realise my own childhood ambition, and open a 'real zoo' in Mal- ta. But going only on their efforts to date, it is at best questionable whether they share the same passion for education and conservation that 'real zoos' are supposed to be all about. The latest Malta zoo- related story is particularly revealing. This week it was reported that "The Environ- ment and Resources Author- ity has described a proposal to regularise the illegally- developed 'Serengeti Animal Park' along Dingli road in Rabat as a flagrant exam- ple of development carried out in the absence of any 'environmental considera- tions whatsoever' which has resulted in 'illegal commit- ments and excessive land- take at the expense of the countryside'. The site was originally a cow-farm, but the owners applied for a change of use to an 'exotic animal farm'... after, it seems, the conver- sion works had already been carried out: "the ERA contends that the various cages, stores, paving and other scattered structures have committed the whole site which is approximately 2,400sq.m in size." The clinching detail, however, concerns the cages themselves: "one cage is listed as being able to hold eight tigers, another to hold three lions, another for three jaguars and one for three leopards." Huh? What? Wasn't this 'exotic animal farm' in- tended to be named the 'Serengeti Animal Park'? That's odd, because last I looked the real Serengeti National Park was located in Tanzania, East Africa. It is home to numerous lions and leopards, yes... but tigers? Unless there's been a conti- nental shift in the meantime – or Noah built a new Ark without telling us – tigers are native only to various parts of East Asia. As for jaguars, you will find them in the wild only on the South American continent. So even without begrudg- ing the developers their zoo- keeper ambitions – which I admit I find hard to do – you can already see that the intention behind this 'animal park' was not to 'educate' the public about wild animals at all. An authentic 'Serengeti Animal Park' would limit its exhibits only to animals found naturally in that re- gion: and even then, it would not restrict itself only to the dangerous (therefore 'excit- ing') animals that people would pay most to see. If the intention was really to recre- ate the Serengeti atmosphere at Dingli, it would also have to include other, less overtly celebrated animals: baboons, giraffes, warthogs, wilde- beest, gazelles, elephants, hippos, zebra, water buffalo, etc. I'll grant that it would be impossible to represent all that park's wildlife on 2,400sq.m in Dingli road; but a proper educational approach would require a judicious selection to cover a broad range of typical Serengeti fauna – oh, and a bit of flora, too – complete with extensive information about the region. Ideally, you would also have quali- fied experts at hand to guide tours and answer questions: as well as audio-visual dis- plays, bookshops, etc. And that's before turning our attention to the small army of veterinarians that would have to be available 24 hours a day; all the safety and security procedures and drills that would have to be in place; and above all – see- ing as we are dealing with a collective responsibility to- wards the planet – a national regulatory legal framework to ensure that all zoos con- form to at least a few basic requirements. According to the UK's Zoos Licensing Act of 1981, for instance, a licensed zoo would be expected to con- duct: "(i) research from which conservation benefits accrue to species of wild animals; (ii) training in relevant con- servation skills; (iii) the exchange of in- formation relating to the conservation of species of wild animals; (iv) where appropriate, breeding of wild animals in captivity; and (v) where appropriate, the repopulation of an area with, or the reintroduction into the wild of, wild animals..." There is, in brief, a whole lot more to 'applying for a permit to build a zoo' than the construction/develop- ment work to be undertaken. It is partly for this reason that I gave up my own zoo- Raphael Vassallo I can perfectly understand why some people are so doggedly determined to realise my own childhood ambition, and open a 'real zoo' in Malta 'Tigers' and 'jaguars'... in the Serengeti?