THE ZOO PARK IN DUSHANBE, TAJIKISTAN

Before I set off for my summer study in Dushanbe I was entranced by this fabulous photo taken in January 2011 of  Vadik the lion cub.  I couldn't wait to learn what the Old World had to teach us about making our animal friends happy in their confinement. It was an image widely disseminated over the web: I even used it in one of my blogs.

JULY 2013 - 100

Imagine my surprise when I visited the Dushanbe Zoo, once the showcase of zoos in the USSR when Tajikistan was a Soviet Republic.

The lions are now on a diet of bread and water, as are the bears, camels (2) and other large hoof animals.  Tajikistan left the Russian Union in 1991, Russian subsidies ceased and then a civil war tore the country apart till 1997.  The number of zoo inmates were decimated and now some of the attendants are volunteers.

Perhaps a tweet to the President, Emomali Rahmon, alias Rahmonov (pre Soviet withdrawal)  would help:    https://twitter.com/EmomaliRahmon

Entrance to Dushanbe ZooPark

I am reminded of a quote from a marvelous history, Civilization by Roger Osbourne:

"The discovery of the New World in 1492 came as an enormous shock to Europeans. The ... people had all believed that the scriptures, the writings of the church fathers and the ancient authorities contained the sum of human knowledge... neither Pliny, Aristotle, nor the Bible contained any knowledge of another world across the ocean."

None of the authorities I consulted before my trip to Dushanbe ( even  after I'd been in Dushanbe for three weeks)  gave any hint of what I would find there. The Old World certainly holds surprises for those of us from the New World.  And so I lived in a state of bemusement all summer.

Zoo vendors also enjoy a diet high in carbohydrates