Zoos and Parks in Central Asia

It's been a long while of very little posting for our family on the "Edge" out here, but every now and then we have a new cultural experience that would be nice to share to the two or three of you still reading whatever comes up here. Once a year is perhaps a little too paltry of an offering, but then new cultural experiences are fairly rare once you have lived overseas for seven years.

We did get one new experience to share this spring. We were in the capital city for a meeting and, since we organized and oversaw the meeting, we came down a few days early to get things together. We had a bit of time late one afternoon so decided to try and visit the national zoo. Now, we have heard very little about the national zoo. It was around in the Soviet days and raided during the civil war, rumors abound that some of the animals ended up in cooking pots when other protein was lacking. Poor country zoos tend to be a little less than stellar, but our boys do love animals so it was worth a shot.

Parking was the usual adventure, which basically meant we parked about a kilometer away from the entrance when there is a parking lot right in front of the gate that was half empty, but no biggie. We can walk. The reason we didn't realize it was the zoo is that the front third has been relegate to more profitable enterprises than looking at animals. There are basically carnival rides set up at front to attract most of the attention, and sense they cost extra, make the profit. To be fair, our whole family of five got in for about 70 cents, so I doubt they are feeding the animals off that fee.

Inside the main attraction was clearly the rides. The animal pens had nearly no grass in any of them. If there was a water feature, it was green and scummy. Some animals were in the wrong type pen for them, about half the pens were empty, and some were full of animals that are, shall we say, non-traditional in a zoo.

Almost every pen was depressingly poorly maintained. Many of the animals needed more space or at least some grass. The lions, bears, and wolves, being dangerous, were in tiny, moldy cages with concrete floors. A few animals seemed to be in decent space, but most were in conditions that would give the SPCA an aneurysm. They did have some animals I have rarely seen up close, such as several Bactrian camels (mis-labeled), a bearded eagle, a few impressive vultures and hawks, and some bears I have never seen up close. The lions were very talkative, and even growing up in Africa I never heard a lion roar that close. Even behind bars, it's a disconcerting sound.

Then there are some other animals, just to round out the cages. They had at least a dozen dogs on display. No, not wolves, not foxes, those were in their own cages, straight up domestic dogs. They weren't even specific breeds, though one is about the biggest dog I have seen in country. There are also a couple cats, chickens, goats, sheep, rabbits, geese, ducks, a horse, and guinea pigs. Maybe in a place where animals were a little more removed from normal life this would be at least interesting, but almost everyone in the city is at best a generation removed from village life at some level. Even if not, less than a 20 minute drive out of town will get you to a place you can interact pretty closely with goats and chickens, whether you want to or not. The exoticism was lacking. These weren't 'petting zoo' animals either, they were behind the same cages the ostrich and antelope had.

The boys really wanted to ride the rides on the way out, but the mean parents declined. It isn't the cost, most of these things are about 10 cents a person, but rather the quality involved. We are fine risking our kids to the questionable safety standards of an inflatable house or tiny railway in the mountains, but these were a bit bigger, faster, and riskier than we wanted to risk. Besides, we just got to see chickens, isn't that enough excitement for a day?

So one experience we had was not so stellar. One wonderful thing about Central Asia though is that, at least in the big capital cities, they do have lots of stellar and often new parks and playgrounds to enjoy. Every time we come to the big city, we take a few trips out to a park as a family. Each of our boys love the playgrounds and running around outside. The older they get, the more likely they are to make friends and talk to other kids while we are there. And, a wonderful bonus for mom and dad, they tend to play on their own through the whole time.

As spring is here, we are out at parks a lot and the boys are running and playing with the best of them. It's a nice change from the regular winter weather and we are thankful for each little playground and park area that gets developed in this city as a place our kids can enjoy the outdoors even in the city.

The three boys in front of some sort of deer. The little papers that described the animals weren't easy to translate.

Bactrian Camels. Since we live roughly in Bactria, it's pretty neat to see the camels up close. 

Wolves in cages. Every year a few people in our part of the world are killed by wolf packs, but we rarely see them very close. 

This lion was not happy about something. He made it clear. A lion roaring is a sound you feel in person, so it wasn't something we hung around too terribly long.

Somehow the rabbits were as interesting as anything else at the zoo.

These guys seemed a little more content than most of the other animals. 

Bearded Eagle (I think). 

A white Bactrian camel.

He looks like a bit of a punk.

The family leaving the zoo.

Whenever they drop their premier album, this is one option for a cover.

Michael enjoying a maze in a park.

Confused?

Happy! This one has many faces.

He is a little unclear on the concept of a slide so far.

Three boys playing contentedly together. This is a rare sighting, akin to Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, but we have un-manipulated photographic evidence that it does happen.

Enjoying the swing.

This one did have a little head incident. Like any responsible parent, I got a picture of the distress before I responded.