Visiting Vulture
Sometimes working as a journalist is such a bonus.
We visited an animal park today, called GaiaZOO.
Members of the Family League, the non-governmental organisation I work for, get a discount there, and our magazine decided the place should get some coverage. It’s in the Netherlands, just across the Dutch-Belgian border, and a two-hour drive away from my home. But boy, was it worth the journey.
As a journalist on duty, but with my family in tow, all three of us got in for free. As an extra surprise upon arrival, my son received a stuffed monkey toy he instantly loved and carried around everywhere we went.
It’s a beautiful park, to be sure. They have an environmental mission they take seriously. The animals have lots of space, and in a number of areas species that coexist peacefully in their natural habitats find themselves living together here, too. The small zebra herd from the picture above, for instance, share their enclave with two huge rinoceros and a flock of guinea fowl.
The natural landscape is embedded in the park: there are old trees, and spontaneously growing shrubs and herbs everywhere. A park guide told me weeds like thistles and nettles are, if necessarily, removed, usually by hand. Except on the gorilla island — because the apes consider them a delicacy and will eat them as soon as they appear. No weeding necessary…
Visitors can get very close to the animals without disturbing them — glass walls, lookouts, tunnels for the children. And in some instances, people and animals can meet face to face. Several very big bird houses and an entire small wood, home to a band of squirrel monkeys, can be explored freely, provided you stick to the paths. Visitors are advised to close their bags and watch out for bird droppings.
I did my job, I asked questions, I took pictures. And at the end of the day I did what I had been looking forward to all along:
I visited my vulture friends.
They live in a giant birdhouse (36 feet high, I don’t know how much surface area, but it was a lot — they could fly!), and this one as well was open to visitors to walk through. With some luck you could find yourself very close to one of the twenty (!) species of birds living in it.
As I stood there, waiting, the last visitor in the almost deserted birdhouse, looking at them sitting there patiently with the low autumn light illuminating their beautiful feathers, I felt a deep peace come over me.
I wouldn’t have minded sitting there all evening and the next day, feeling their calm, watching them be comfortable, flex their wings, and on occasion fly.
A good, good day this was.
