14feb2016

the TODAY project

sunday 14 feb 2016

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text and photos by roylu.

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vesty pakos

zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

vol 1 no 5

theTODAYproject

thanks to the animals all over who, in zoos and elsewhere help us humans ďŹ nd and keep our place in the universal scheme, even if often we insist that this place is on top or at the head of this scheme.

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zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

theTODAYproject 2 1 today, we crossed-off one item in our to-visit list.

2 we didn't know until we got there that it wasn't like in our list: la paz zoo. no. it is the zoologico municipal vesty pakos.

3 named after silvester 'vesty' pakos. a herpetologist by training, a naturalist by inclination. of austrian descent which you could not tell that by his name alone, and the first director of the zoo when it was transferred to its present location, in mallasa. in the 90s.

4 in all of my travels, this is the third zoo i have been to so far. my unscientific definition of a zoo is a facility for animals and for people to view them that has at least an elephant and a lion.

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zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

theTODAYproject 3 5 this zoo has a lion. and other smaller cats endemic to bolivia and south america. pumas, jaguars, et al. jaguars, from my informal count, are the most populous in this zoo. of the cats, that is.

6 and if a 2008 posting on viajeros.com is to be believed the zoo has a total of 80,563 individual animals including: mamiferos – 36,309 aves – 35,188 reptiles – 866 peces - 1 poor fish. lonely life.

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7 except for the fish, for zero and one are the easiest to count, those numbers look incredible. but then the trick, if you think of it as that, is how individual animals are de-individualized by putting them into boxes more difficult to escape than the cages they are in. mamiferos, aves, reptiles, etc. and then it is difficult to argue that it isn't what the numbers say. you have to be a professional bean counter to come up with an argument. or be a science journal. which, viajeros.com is not. now, that right there could be an argument.

zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

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zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

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zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

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zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

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zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

theTODAYproject 8 8 the first zoo i had been to didn't have a lion. but it had an elephant. elephants. two or maybe three. but by the time i visited them they were in an advanced state of malnutrition. the zoo would close soon after. or be transferred. and be forgotten. even as there were ultimately futile attempts by private persons to keep the zoo alive, which, it was for a while, until it dwindled down to a clutch of chickens, a flock of pigeons, and some stray dogs. a sorrier state than that of the lonely fish at the zoo we were just at.

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9 this zoo was indeed a project of private persons. a fringe religious community, the lamplighters, who preached and practiced environmentalism when nobody knew what the word meant. at least not in that part of the world. the zoo was their reminder of the natural world that we are all a part of. that this natural world was disappearing. the zoo, and they themselves would likewise head that way. not long after.

zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

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zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

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zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

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zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

theTODAYproject 12 10 while it was called the cebu city zoo the city of cebu didn't do much except contribute the space which, doesn't say much of its regard for nature. or culture. the space was the historically important spanish fort: fort san pedro. a space good enough to house soldiers and assorted defensive weaponry. but a bit tight for pachyderms. even malnourished ones.

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11 in contrast, the vesty pakos is very well supported by the city of la paz, providing it with a 22 hectare area. facilities, personnel, and, of course, animals. who look healthy. well cared for. happy, i would even hazard to say.

zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

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zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

theTODAYproject 15 12 it is one of the must visit sites in tourists' itineraries. a jewel in the tourism program of the municipality. but, more than the tourists, it is with the locals that you see the value of the zoo. it is almost always full of them.

13 it is affordable. cheap. yet, it is well organized, equipped and is an educational center that any zoo should be. recreational as well. there are park equipments, rides, inflatables, etc. and, most importantly, space and shade. that's all you need for the national past time: picnic.

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14 it is also clean. very clean. the toilets are. housed in repurposed container vans. the womens' side, still mounted on wheels. ready to go, if and when, for any apocalyptic reason, needed. the men, perhaps, can stay behind and fend for themselves. this, mind you, is still a very macho culture. despite the enviable strides women and some men have made.

zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

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zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

theTODAYproject 17 15 today was also valentine's day. a day, the celebration of which everybody knows is simply to sell more chocolates, cut flowers, greeting cards, book more hotel-motel rooms, and god knows what else on the internet. anything and everything else but love or even simple human regard. mostly.

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16 valentine's day notwithstanding, it was a good day to visit animals. amongst human animals. ones closest to you and even those not so close. still by the fact of our humanity our animality our organismisity a tie we need to keep bound. tightly. gently.

zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia

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zoologico municipal vesty pakos, mallasa, la paz, bolivia