Why leave? Reason #9: Awareness

Here in the Netherlands we work as volunteers at the zoo. This is to provide information about the animals to the visitors. Every guide has got their own reason to do this work. We both love animals, but we also think that conservation is most important. If nothing changes we won’t have certain animals on the planet in a couple of years. Certain tiger species are already extinct. We try when possible to tell people something about how certain animals are threatened. Not in a teachy, strict, blaming kind of way, but more like a nice warm conversation when the visitor is willing to talk about it. This leads to the most interesting conversations and stories.

This is for us a great way to reach people and talk with them about these topics. However the animals are not where the are supposed to be when we do this in the zoo. They should live in the wild. Meeting an elephant in the zoo is impressive, but it faints compared to an encounter with an elephant in the wild. Only people who ever met a wild ellie will understand the feeling and the effect.

In our opinion there is no better place to show people the beauty of the earth on the place where these magnificent animals live. We would like to explain to people how important conservation is during amazing trips through the lower bush. To show the beauty of it and to show what we have to miss if we don’t handle nature more careful. Not in a teachy, strict, blaming kind of way, but more like a nice warm conversation when our guests are willing to talk about it.

Wiebe & Melanie