EVER WONDER what happens to a zoo during a war? Probably not, which makes National Geographic Channel’s “Kabul Zoo Rescue” so intriguing. Media coverage of a war tends to focus, naturally, on human suffering. But it doesn’t make the plight of animals–especially those in cages who depend on humans for their meals–any less compelling.
And so it was with a bit of astonishment and sympathy that we learned last November of Marjan, the ailing lion of the Kabul Zoo. He was blind, malnourished, and only getting worse. The first thought that crossed my mind was, Kabul has a zoo?
It does indeed–it’s been around for more than thirty years and at its height saw 150,000 visitors annually. But in the last two decades, it has seen some tough times as civil war engulfed the country. Between 1990 and 1995, the fighting around the zoo escalated, leaving bullet holes in every wall. Under the Taliban regime, it was almost entirely eliminated until a Muslim scholar saved the day, having found references to Muhammad keeping pets. (The Taliban did, however, ban anyone else from owning animals because they believed it would be a form of entertainment.)
Not until the Taliban were uprooted late last year did international relief workers return to the zoo. What they found were about forty animals remaining, all suffering neglect, some showing signs of physical abuse. In January of 2002, Hayden Turner, a zookeeper at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo, ventured into the war-torn capital to help save the animals and improve their surroundings. It is this humanitarian task that the National Geographic Channel has captured in the documentary that will re-air on Sunday, September 15 (it first aired June 24).
One of Hayden’s chief concerns was making a better home for two Eurasian wolves. At the beginning of the program, both were penned in restrictive confines that forced them to run in figure eights from morning till night. “The wolves are going stir-crazy,” says Hayden–usually wolves roam about thirty miles per day. But thanks to the help of WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals), a new and more open field is being constructed. The only problem is some areas are strewn with mortar shells–in the movie, an Afghan boy actually hands WSPA’s international projects director, John Walsh, a shell still containing powder. It’s interesting seeing the wolves finally move to their new home–they cautiously sniff the ground in front of them before trotting out. Then they return to their figure eights out of habit before realizing there’s more space.
Another subplot concerns Donatella, an Asiatic black bear. For some time now, Donatella has been suffering from a badly infected nose that was partially sliced off by a Taliban soldier. It hasn’t yet healed, in part because the bear is constantly rubbing its nose against the cage. Hayden and WSPA make every effort to give her antibiotics (hidden in apples and bread) and later try to lure her into newer, more open surroundings.
Meanwhile, with the help of local Afghan merchants, Hayden constructs metal cylinders containing nuts for the macaques. These monkeys have also been in declining health, kept in closet-like cages far too long, dulling their mental acuity. Their new food dispensers require the monkeys to figure out how to get their food, thus stimulating their brains–essential to their survival.
Of the animals featured in the film, the saddest is Marjan, the “Lion of Kabul.” At 25 he is old by any standard, in addition to being blind and frail. His mane is scraggly and his keeper, Sheragha Omar, must coax him into eating. It’s an odd sight, Omar waving a hunk of red meat in Marjan’s face, the lion acting indifferently to it. The cold weather doesn’t help much either and one particularly chilly night almost kills him. As the sun rises, he just lies there. Omar sits with him, rubbing his back, knowing the old fellow may have to be put down.
As bad as it looks, the animals at the Kabul Zoo are doing relatively well (thanks to a determined few). As history shows, much worse can happen to a wartime zoo. In 1945, all chaos broke loose at the Berlin Zoo as the Soviet Army was advancing. One day a bomb landed directly on it. According to an eyewitness cited by Alexandra Richie in “Faust’s Metropolis,” “The next morning alligators and snakes were crawling across the streets. Chimpanzees were hanging from the trees.”
When the fighting got closer, as Russians and Germans battled block by block, the zoo found itself at the center of the firestorm–including a shootout at the aquarium. David Clay Large notes in his hefty tome “Berlin”: “A hippo named Rosa floated dead in her tank with the fin of a shell protruding from her carcass. . . .” The situation didn’t get any better after the Red Army conquered the city. One Soviet diplomat, Konstantin Simonov, saw firsthand just how horrible the circumstances were. Explains Richie:
“Simonov climbed over the Zoo wall and came across the pathetic sight of an emaciated elephant wandering around its compound. An old warden emerged and told him that although he had nursed it through the war the beast was starving; Simonov was touched that he asked for food not for himself, but for his animals. The warden took Simonov to the cages of what had been the largest chimpanzee and gorilla in Europe. Two dead SS men lay inside; a third corpse was propped against a pillar with a machine gun still resting on his knees. The warden broke down when he saw his animals lying in huge black pools of blood which had spread across the cement floor, the sight of the dead animals clearly affecting him more than that of the more commonplace dead men.” (We learn from David Large’s book that the gorilla was not shot, but rather stabbed to death.)
Simonov later happened upon a group of Russian soldiers by the monkey pit. Writes Richie, “One curious Russian climbed into the pit to play with the animal and was bitten, and Simonov feared that the soldier would instinctively lash out and kill it. Instead the weary man clambered slowly out of the pit, found a spot near a group of dead Germans, curled up, and went to sleep.”
“Kabul Zoo Rescue” airs on Sunday, September 15, 8 p.m. ET, on the National Geographic Channel.
Victorino Matus is an assistant managing editor at The Weekly Standard.
