In the jungle

I've always been really interested in zoos and aquariums. When I was 13 I was very learned in the plight of captive cetaceans - like dolphins and killer whales etc - because it is so obvious that these animals should not be kept in cages and made to do tricks just for human entertainment and profit. I dun wanna get all preachy but yeah it's all very very wrong and I know all zoos and aquariums are like 'but we raise awareness about endangered animals!' and that's all very well and maybe it's true but I think the funding could go into much much more beneficial thangs for endangered animals rather than just maintaining the ones in zoos - like I remember ages ago there was this news story about I think it was a giraffe or an elephant maybe that was FLOWN to Melbourne Zoo - like it was probably for breeding purposes etc but couldn't the animal just have stayed in it's original country and the money to fly over this creature that is NOT MEANT to go in a plane could've gone towards stopping the deforestation that's wrecking the poor things' home in the first place?? 

Um I didn't want to rant in the post but yeah I do feel pretty strongly about that. Anyway when I was a little girl I loved every animal ever and I spent all my Christmas money on this book, which I still hold very dear to me: 

And it's just like the best book ever - I used to lug it around with me everywhere: Nanna's house, holidays, car trips, school...it was so huge, and full of every animal ever, and info and pictures and I just never got tired of it. Because of it I actually have retained a hilarious amount of knowledge about lots of animals (did you know that orangutans share 97% of a human's DNA materials? AMAZING!) Sometimes I forget that I was once truly and absolutely set on working with animals when I grew up; before piano and music became my life I used to daydream about travelling to Africa and working with the animals there and riding my pony to school and saving orcas from Seaworld a la Free Willy (A+ 10/10 film would recommend).

The next piece I'm writing for uni has to have at least five separate sections, and go for about 8mins. There's other criteria too but it's kinda confusing and I don't even know what I'm meant to be doing so I'll probably just end up doing whatever I want then wrapping some explanation and justification around it.

I think I'm going to try and draw some inspiration from my love and passion for animals and how hard their lives must be just because they have to share the world with us. I'm fascinated by their resilience and quiet acceptance, allowing us to poke them and prod them and eat them and mistreat them, ya know? It's terribly sad but very, very intriguing. Speaking of intriguing: 

And some great vintage footage from Bristol Zoo in the '60s...