The other side of the baby elephant walk

Leash and I went to the Night Safari tonight. It was an attraction that many had recommended as something, or must to do when you come to my Island. Even though I’m a native here, I had not been yet, and there was reason for it. Actually, Leash had suggested that we go to the Zoo the previous Saturday and I wriggled out of that one too. I had a real resistance to it.

The only time I’ve really enjoyed the zoo was to watch Marlowe’s, my nephew who was then aged two, reaction to the Orang-utans at the new Melbourne Zoo enclosure. He absolutely loved them, so alive with excitement, it was great to watch, but even then it still hit me. It was a real sense of sadness and anger.

We hopped on the night safari tram, the voice over telling passengers not to use flashes so to protect the animals. It made me snigger. Protect the animals? Ok, but had they not been captured to be imprisoned, away from their natural home, families and conditions? Huh? Whilst they looked stunning set in a perfectly landscaped picture of a what the voice on the speaker would describe as “the rain forest” or the African Serengeti’s or amidst some forests of South East Asia, they were literally just allotments, all set up for these animals to “keep up appearances” for the show.

I felt like we were in Jurassic Park, there were no cages or large offensive fences keeping animal and man separate, it just us in this stretch golf cart for 100 and the wild were munching on the fresh hay recently laid so us humans had something to marvel at. Any minute now a Tyrannosaurus Rex was going to come through the bush and eat Leash’s head off. But no, only a Malayan Tapir that looked like a giant anteater walking beside us that was enough to make her jump right out of her seat. I got the giggles anyway.

It’s dark, and the trees are incredibly lush, it’s the tropics so the air is thick and there is a definite mood to it. Then we'd hear the voice talking of the tragedy of the tigers being hunted, “it takes three of tigers to make one fur coat” she said, “and that until they stop buying, the killing wont stop.” . It made me think.

We passed the Himalayan Tahr, the Barking Deer, the greater Asian Rhino and I started to cry. Silently. There was this warrior, a unit of armour, standing solo in his patch of green green grass, with some mounds of dirt, a few trees and shrubbery, all landscaped to taste. But he was solo. The voice spoke of his incredible hunger and facts of how he could eat 90kg of food a day. Really -Wow, but what about the isolation and emasculation of this mighty beast? These animals are pack animals, they mate for life; they were not built to be lonely in a confined space for $22 a ride.

The Axis Deer, the Water Buffalo’s, the Golden Jackals, the Striped Hyena’s, the Lion, the Clouded Leopard, the Bearded Pig (or bush pig, it did make me laugh for a bit!) and then we came to the Elephants and I lost it.

There was Luk Chai, meaning the "Son of Triumph", 8 years old and he the first baby elephant born in captivity. Elephants are born to be families, a herd; that have a minimum of ten in each. Elephants walk in single file, more than 15 miles at a time to find the next watering hole. To be kept in a patch, isolated from what I could see were the two others in the opposite pen upset me.

There was no walking single file, truck to tail options here. When a male elephant reaches maturity, he is booted from the herd to start his own bachelor clan. He was never going to experience the realness of the wild, the chance to respect his matriarch and travel across great lands to find the next watering hole. Luk Chai would never freely mount a female when he felt randy; nor would he fight to the (near) death with other bulls to defend his territory or win his lady’s affection. So many moments, colourful herd rituals, he’d never know should exist in his life. He would just “smile and wave” to people like me. I thought it so sad, I had tears sliding down my face and my nostrils welled up too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPDeC7hyzRY&feature=related
- “Smile and Wave Boys – Madagascar”

The other side of of my protest Leash debated, was the need for education. She believed the people needed to appreciate how sacred these animals are, how real the treat of extinction is for many, and how the hunting of such magnificent beast for skins and hides should be exposed. Whilst I saw her point, I couldn’t entirely agree, the people coming to this amazing attraction were not the hunters, nor I suspected were people that would become activists either. I saw this more as a sensationalised excursion, not one that left you with a message as strong as “Save the whales”.

The other side of this is that the film Madagascar was a fantasy about animals in a Zoo, who all talked English and had their own fun, behind closed doors. But you see, even in this flick they broke out of the zoo because they had to know what life on the otehr side was really like - out there – somewhere. Well Madagascar actually. I wondered what tune Luk Chai would whack on when the trams stopped and he was alone, naked in darkness with no-one around? “The Baby Elephant Walk” maybe? Love that tune! Gets ya a great little groove on! Yeah baby!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_a6rA7hRUA&feature=fvsr

We dumped the tram then went on foot to get a closer look. Leash was ecstatic about it, so pleased we’d come on this adventure, which made me happy. She’d been doing it so tough this week nursing her broken heart, it was such a nice break in the wind to see her smiling and shiny with a warm colour to her cheeks rather then the grey.

I have to say, the other side of my objections was appreciation. It really was incredible, and we felt super imposed into these scenes of each animal. Leash felt like we were really in a rain forest, I just thought that was the sweat sweetie, but who was I to ruin the moment! But then we came to the Rhino again, and again, I wept. This poor poor lonely beast. He looked like he was on vellum, not ready to charge. There was certainly no “charge” there at all.

Leash turned to me and said, “the other side of your tears is probably a deep seed emotions of your own feelings of isolation”. Was she right? Was this buried emotions that I had surpress, linked to being sent to boarding school at 12, or being overseas away from my family for 8 years and only seeing them twice? Playing alone as a child when my parents worked around the clock running a restaurant and the boys had no time to play with me? Or when three days before I was due to face into a major battle to defend my core beliefs like David did to Goliath, my mother called to say she wasn’t coming to London to hold my hand?

The other side of this theory was that I had a long-standing fantasy of life in Africa, all born from falling in love with the story of Karen Blixen. Out of Africa. It’s ruined me for life. I love Africa, South Africa especially, or where I’ve spent most of my time. If you know me well, you’ll nod and say, “yes, she does love a Safer”. I do, I just love their attitude, their vibrancy, and the energy of that land is something you can only describe once you’ve felt it. My friend Penny wrote on facebook the other day, “…other beautiful day in Africa”. Oh, it made me inhale deeply and the sides of the mouth curled. Again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSO3DEcyxPI
The Out of Africa Theme Song
To me, the animals are as they should be in the wild of these wondrous African countries. Wild, in their natural form, living from the land or from each other, the strong survive the weak and the kingdom has its harmony and rightful ebbs and flows. It truly is that - a magical Kingdom. (I’ve stopped typing and I’m smiling. I've got a nice warm and fuzzy feeling in my chest.) Have you ever heard a lion roar, telling his pride he is home? Don’t watch it on “Planet Earth”; go see for yourself, you’ll never forget it for the rest of your life.

So who knows, maybe I’ve still got some issues to deal with and if is that case, I’ll have a chat with Judith - but really the crux of the matter is I honestly feel that we shouldn’t fuck with nature and way the universe was meant to be. Evolution and commercialism has a lot to answer for on all accounts.

The other side is I’m glad I went. It’s reminded me of my love for animals, Karen Blixen's story and everything wild about them.


There is always a silver lining. And hey, well all need a good cry now and again.

Fleur
TBS