It’s all happening at the Zoo

Water snakes hide in the murky water even as a boat filled with curious visitors circles a small island in the lagoon teeming with trees and birds. Elsewhere, a tiger yawns in his den, eagles spread their wings, monkeys make the racket they always do, zebras mosey along while hippos stir under water. It is morning at the zoo—the Manila Zoo, that is, which for 48 years has been part of many Filipino childhood memories.

Mali, the Asian elephant, is perhaps the most famous resident of the Manila Zoo and Botanical Garden, for she has been around since 1979. Used to the attention of being the only living elephant in the country, Mali is a crowd pleaser, strutting around her pen and playfully wagging her trunk as she answers the call of Mang Manny, our guide.

One upcoming scene-stealer is Jackpot, a hybrid wild pig from Vietnam raised at the zoo, who shows off tricks he learned from his trainer like playing a game of throw and retrieve at the zoo’s amphitheater.

In the last few years, the Manila Zoo has undergone changes to give the animals a bigger and more natural space to move around, says administrator Dr. Romulo Bernardo. The more than five-hectare Manila Zoo—the country’s oldest and for the longest time its only zoo—lies amid a haven of trees along Adriatico St. and houses a total of 832 mammals, birds and reptiles of 97 species that include international, indigenous and even threatened species like the cassowary.

Visitors trickle in as early as 7 a.m. but the day really begins once the first bus of students on a field trip arrives. School life would not be complete without a field trip to the zoo, where a child’s education about animals jumps out of the pages of textbooks for a face-to-face encoun-ter. Each year, between 1.5 to 1.8 million people visit zoo residents like Berto and Berta the hippos who, every now and then, peek an inch above water to catch a glimpse of their visitors. Sissy the orangutan is less obliging, refusing to move an inch. Nearby, a couple of Japanese red-faced macaques put on a silly act. Bengal tigers Rizal and Pelilia lazily gaze out from their elevated dens, as parents attempt to take their pictures.

While most of the animals are in enclosures, several avian species like a couple of eagles and owls are perched on a railing behind the benches near the lagoon. Grass owls, serpent eagles, eagle owls and hawk eagles pretty much mind their own business. Birds commonly found in Metro Manila like night herons fly around freely while others have made a home for themselves on the island in the middle of the deep lagoon, formerly known as Monkey Island, where peacocks and storks live.

In the lagoon where buan-buan and tilapia thrive, visitors can go boating for as little as P30. At the Kinder Zoo, visitors can freely touch the animals like turtles, ostriches and even snakes like the python. Colorful birds and butterflies also fly freely here.

As it is also a botanical garden, the Manila Zoo maintains thriving flora with trees like mahogany, giant ipil-ipil, cotton, rubber, apatot, bakawan and, of course, the white-flowered mangrove plant called the nilad, where the name Manila comes from.

The Manila Zoo opened its doors on July 26, 1959, seven years after the idea was conceptualized by Manila’s first mayor Arsenio H. Lacson. Manny Dapadap, or Mang Manny, has been a tour guide at the zoo for almost as long. He never tires of his job of educating adults and children about the animals that he and the rest of the Manila Zoo community have come to love.

On school field trips, Mang Manny comes to the aid of teachers who are not able to answer students’ questions about animals. School field trips are constant every year, usually from September to February.

But with the daily activities, the animals are more susceptible to stress, says veterinarian Marines Lagarto, who has been with the zoo since 1994 and is in charge of the 27 zookeepers and two foremen.

"As much as possible, we lower the level of stress in their environ-ment by approximating their enclosures to their natural environment," explains Lagarto, like making sure that trees and plants are abundant for the birds, and shelters well maintained for the rest of the animals. "Of course visitors would like to see the animals but isipin din natin na yung mga animals minsan gusto rin magtago."

What they watch out for, she says, is any change in the animals’ diet and appetite.

"As part their natural behavior, they don’t easily look sluggish if they are sick unlike pet animals. If you don’t know what to observe, you’ll miss these symptoms," Lagarto explains. The hardest to take care of are birds, she says, since they are most "susceptible to stress and weather changes."

The zoo has 286 birds of 55 different species. Mammals number 116 of 24 species while reptiles have the biggest population with 396 of 18 species, among them the Philippine crocodile.

The basic job of zookeepers is to clean the cages and feed the animals. Most of the older zookeepers like Enriquito Viñas get their training from hands-on expe-rience. The new ones, in turn, get their training from the senior staff. "Sa nine years na zookeeper ako dito, marami na rin akong nalalaman sa pag-aalaga," he says.

One zookeeper, he recalls, was injured when he was scratched by a tiger during feeding but Viñas says it was due to negligence. "Hindi kasi nasunod yung tamang pag-feed. Napasok niya agad yung kamay niya sa cage, eh dapat quick release at presence of mind."

Viñas finds it harder to take care of reptiles because of their aggres-siveness. His favorite resident is Mali "kasi siya yung pinakamataas ang IQ."

Manila Zoo administrator Bernardo was still a student of veterinary medicine when Mali arrived at the Manila Zoo as an orphaned calf. "It’s fun to see the animals grow. I used to raise and nurse them when I was still a practicing vet," says Bernardo, who started as a junior veterinarian at the Manila Zoo in 1987 and was later promoted to senior vet before being appointed as zoo administrator around 1997.

"The rehabilitation of the Manila Zoo is continuous. The construction of the enclosures for hoofed animals is ongoing, we are rearranging the zoo setup to give the animals more space and less barriers," Bernardo explains. "The setup of the aviaries has also changed with the right mix of species to simulate a more natural setup."

At the same time, the zoo administration is working on getting more animals like giraffes and lions, as the last lion died a couple of years ago due to old age. But Bernardo points out that it is not the quantity of animals that they are after but rather how best to simulate the "most natural environment" for the animals.

And in the name of conservation, he expresses belief in forging strong ties with groups, volunteers and even students to work for the cause of animals.

"The habitat of the animals is getting smaller and there is a need for preservation efforts and places where animals can be kept for the future generation. This zoo is for the education of the people, especially the young."