A Zoorific Experience

We finally started sketching animals for a change, as the theme for this June's sketching session for the Philippine USk. Some 15 of us managed to get up early for the 9 to 12 sketching at the Manila Zoological and Botanical Garden last Saturday, June 23, 2012.

The Manila Zoo is not what others expect as well kept than some. I remember visiting the one in Singapore, and I got to feed a giraffe and its rough tongue brushing my fingers, and it was so big that we didn't finish seeing all the animals there.

Back in Manila Zoo, we only have a few animals (the site says 500 animals) and I didn't notice any guides touring visitors or any animal petting areas where the kids can experience some of the less wilder species first hand.

It is no surprise that any pro-animal group are recommending the closure and transfer of the animals to other zoos, after seeing some state of decay. I think, however, that loosing OUR zoo would will not do, as we stand to loose a place of learning and interaction with animals.

Here are some of the sketches of the animals that caught our attention.

Mali the elephant was moving about most of the time

Muffy's sketch of Mali

7-year-old Ampoa and her sketch of Mali

Mali was obviously a bit restless with her pacing around and sometimes not so enthusiastic to visitors

We saw some of the birds like this macaw caged up with no way of using their wings

She had such a colorful blending feathers

This Cassowary bird had a very large horn

A least this one has lots of space to run around

The peacocks couldn't stay still! Now I know where G-Force's costume design came from.

The harvest of sketches on sketchbooks for this session

We had a hearty lunch at the nearby Tapa King