Travel Tips

This chapter is an update on how the conditions have changed since my last visit. I made a report and sent it to the Bornfree Organisation in the UK. They are following up the story. I noticed a few minor improvements. I suspect, however that many animals in poor condition were hidden in an inaccessible area. I think that the Phuket Zoo may have seen my pictures as my VT page shows up just under their website listing on Google.

I thought it would be amusing to include this excerpt from the Phuket Zoo's website. It probably shows how much they know about animals, or their well-being and quality of life anyway. *Please note the reptiles, (rabbits - who knows where they were. I think they must be the crocodiles food and hidden out the back somewhere), the number of butterfly species and number of crocodiles. We (both times) have seen very few butterflies - but none on the first visit.

"Phuket Zoo is located on Soi Phalai. It's area covers 62 rai and is a fun place to see a large collection of animal and reptiles such as lovely rabbits, 60 kinds of birds, more that 100 kinds of butterflies and more than 6,000 crocodiles.

In addition, animal performances such as clever elephants and monkeys make visitors enjoyed and amazed. Meanwhile, those get the exhilarated and exiting feeling in fighting between men and crocodiles without weapon. It is easy to touch the excellent land at Phuket Zoo Co., Ltd. "

This is a picture of a beautiful bird which I can't find the name of. Unfortunately it has blue plastic wrapped around its wing and most likely cutting into the flesh. It may well have been a fix for a broken wing that never got removed. There is another bird here with a broken wing. They have small cage doors to go through to move about. They "dance" and flap their large wings. I guess that's how the injuries have occurred here.

We felt so sorry for the lonely little otter in his concrete cubicle. We gave him a rock which he immediately delighted in and rolled onto his back trying to crack it on his stomach. I then gave him some grass. He went absolutely berserk! It was so funny! He started running around the cage with it in his mouth, mowing it along the floor a few rounds of his cage, then taking it to the corner and rolling himself/trying to cover himself with it. We kept giving him more, each time he repeated the ceremony and ended up with a heap of grass in the corner. Hopefully he had his soft bed for the night.

The Emus at the zoo are in a disgraceful state. They all look unhealthy with drab, dirty feathers. They have green dirty water to drink and the one bowl of food to share. No stimulation of any kind for these birds, even though they're luckier than a lot of the animals here as they have some company.

The animals here don't even get a variation in their diet.

This Hornbill was eager for our attention as another animal with an incredibly monotonous and boring life. No companionship and a broken leg to boot.

You can buy fish food at the zoo which are small balls of cat food looking stuff. We hand fed almost all the birds who go crazy about it. I think part of the reason is that it is like the social bird activity of feeding eachother, it is also a variation to the same seed they get every day and a bit of a stimulus.

All the Hornbills are incredibly gentle as they pluck each tiny ball from between your fingers with great dexterity.

Another momentarily happy animal. We gave this lonely Sunbear a stick which he went crazy with. He sniffed it, rolled it over his face and played with it. Unfortunately it was too old to have any juice or bugs or whatever in it. He only got the fun of playing with something, no snack though.

He had runny faeces in his cage again which was a barren concrete cell with no bedding or anything else.

These deer are grazing animals and have nothing but dirt in this enclosure. As you can see, one at the feed bin has black plastic stuck on its horns. The feed bowl was too small and when the animals tried to eat at it they kept getting their horns locked together.

The Cassowarys do not fare much better than the rest of the beasts here. This monotonous life without company, grass or even food in your bowl to fill in the day is just cruelty if you ask me.