Manila Zoological and Botanical Garden

It has always been my childhood dream to see live animals that are running, making noises in the flesh. I have always been an animal lover in fact I have four parakeets, four domestic cats and goldfish at home. And I heard this zoo a lot of times since I was a child from my relatives. I have seen the pictures of my cousins and aunts having a great time inside the zoo. And I was so jealous. Until finally this year, I made it a point to visit the Manila Zoo for the first time.

Manila Zoological and Botanical Garden is the first and the oldest zoo in Asia which opened last July 25 1959 and I do not know where I was that time (LOL). But because of its almost half a decade of existence, the zoo is facing a great threat for closure. I first saw the shocking news in one of the news program television and I was so dismayed with what I saw. I checked the website of a co-blogger that was the source of the information of the news and I felt really sad with the present state of the zoo. In fact, this zoo became a trending topic in Yahoo that made me interested to visit the place and check myself out.

Mr Igorot

Upon arrival, the place greeted me with this huge human statue along the road. He looks like an Igorot  hunter carrying a deer on his back. I was expecting that there will be no or few people on the zoo because of the Bagyong Quiel and because of the terrible image of the zoo. But no, I was wrong as I still have to wait for my turn to have a photo with this fellow outside this zoo.

I am not quite sure about this certain heart structure but it definitely looks neat and Shelanne mentioned that they had their picture taking at this structure before with Way and Madewin so I decided to just join the shoot.

More statues on the Main Gate Entrance. An elephant statue, and I believe it is more like representing the star of this Zoo, Mali, an asian elephant (which later on I had my picture taking with).

There were commendable number of people visiting the zoo despite the storm surge. There were even group and even families on their field trips. Now let's get inside the zoo (pack with my wrecked umbrella and jacket).

First stop, the Ostrich. The news was right after all. I saw this poor thing near the cage perimeter. The ostrich is feather less, almost bald and is obviously in cold. Poor thing!!!

Vishwamali, Mali for short , is an Asian elephant that was born in Sri Lanka in 1974. She was only three years old when she was brought here in Manila Zoo. She is the star of this Zoo and has been use as an icon.

One more pic shelanne with Mali please (LOL). Forgive me but I was so excited to see Mali in the flesh. That was my first time to see an elephant in real life, the first time to see Mali ( the Zoo's famous animal) that I only saw in television, and the first time to hear the noise of the elephant. And because of my eagerness, I noticed Mali looking at me (yehey).

The chubby Hippopotamus, is a shy type of animal. I don't know but I had this impression when I saw this animal dipped under water with just his nose stuck above the level of the water to make him breathe.

Shy because he never came out from the water and chubby because he is literally fat as what I have seen from his pictures taken by other bloggers.

The reptile house encassed the different kinds of reptile species like snakes, iguanas, gecko, bayawak, etc. Some of which are familiar and are endemic in the country like in Negros and Zamboanga.

One thing I noted about this reptile zoo is that the terrarium cages had an unusual scent, probably from these reptiles poop. Eiw!

I remember my Aunt Marcelina musing on the idea why Manilenos are interested with turtles locally named Bao and that they were just endemic in her province (Negros Oriental).

Further touring the zoo, I saw these crocodiles and alligators. Well I really don't know the difference between these two, maybe based on their habitat (sea, fresh water) or maybe the size.

Actually, the crocodile show is very timely that time. Since there was a certain fresh water crocodile that was captured in Barangay New Era, Bunawan, Agusan del Sur. It was named Lolong and just like the fate of Manila Zoo, this captive was greatly disputed by the PETA and other animal lover groups. Lolong is the biggest and longest known crocodile alive  in the world and it became as well a trending topic in Yahoo and twitter.

I remember Mam May as well when I was on the crocodile cages. She jokingly mentioned that she gets irritated when she turns on the television and almost all news program aired that Lolong had not yet eaten and the PETA's rally, all mentioning the word BUAYA, which coincidentally is her last name. :)

Philippine Mouse Deer. This is a specie of a family of deer that can only be found in the Philippines and is called locally as Pilandok. Pilandok is endemic in Balabac Island in Palawan but because of the global problem of population and forest conversion (which destroys the natural house of these animals) only few are alive and existing. They are actually listed on one of the endangered species.

Zebra. This is actually my first time to see a Zebra in real life. Well, it realy looks like a horse the only thing is that they have stripes printed on their bodies. According to a certain educational video that this stripes help this animals protect themselves from their prey by camouflaging them with that of the Savanah dessert. Plus the scorching heat in the savanah the hungry lion or tiger will see this animals like a tall dry weeds/grasses.

My first time as well to see tigers. And I realize that they are truly a family of felines that really look like cats that are only huge in size and deadly, of course. 

Well, as I was writing this blog, I just knew it from a certain news program that there were three young lion cubs that were just born in the zoo and it were named after the three storms that had heat the country that month. These cubs are now being shown to the public on their kinder zoo (that was closed when I went there!. (Maybe I should be checking out Manila Zoo again when I come back and I will make it sure that this time i will get to see these cubs and all animals in the Kinder Zoo).

Forgive me, but I don't know the different species on this man made pond.

Bird Aviary. I saw different species of birds including the Philippine eagle.

Monkeys are always part of the zoo. I believe there is no zoo in the world with no monkeys.

Finally, I found this man made lake on the center of the zoo. But unfortunately, the use of bancas (boat rental for Php60 for 30 minutes) was not permitted due to the bad weather. Then, Shelanne mentioned of a fond memory of rowing a banca with Way, Madewin and Kuya Greg on their first time in this zoo and I get so envious on her story.

I was so dismay when I found out that I can not locate any giraffe specie in the zoo. It is one of the reasons actually why I was so interested to visit this zoo, because I saw a giraffe on my Aunts photo that was taken on this zoo in the early 80s , I guess. I only found this huge giraffe statue on the children's playground. I was wondering if the real giraffe looks anything like this statue. :(

      

Manila Zoo was ONCE a great zoo. I heard lots and lots of very nice stories about this zoo. I saw the pictures of the great old Manila Zoo in his Golden Time of my Aunts and cousins. This place use to be, not just Manila but Philippines' pride as it is literally the first and the oldest zoo in Asia. But nowadays, this could hardly be included to any itinerary trips. It needs a major major rehabilitation. 

How to get here?

Manila Zoo is a well known place in Manila and you can ask almost anyone for directions. The zoo is along Quirino Avenue in Adriatico Street, Malate (at the corner of Harrison and Mabini Streets). You may opt to ride the LRT Line 1 and get off at the Quirino Station and ride a jeep bound for Mabini or Harrison. Ask the driver to drop you off in the zoo itself or you can just walk your way to the zoo (which I did). It is also accessible by a taxi ride from any location in Manila.

The entrance fee is Php40 for adults and Php20 for childrens. If you happen to be a Manileno and you brought your ID then you have a slash 50% discount.

Please click .................. Back to My Gay (Misadventure) Manila Trip Part 2