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?