Getting Amused At The Dushanbe Zoo

Seeing animals, ho hum. At the Dushanbe Zoo, there are plenty of rides and amusements when the fauna start to bore. Dare to ride?

Also, a bit sad. Pool tables to the left, slide in the middle, and flying chairs to the right. Unoccupied.

Water ride. Never get out of the blind duck that has flames coming out of its butt. Goalie, already committed.

Shooting gallery. "My gun can blow apart a brick wall!"

Measuring your strength. Do you have a mean right hook or a massive left calf? More blindness, this time on the trippy mushroom train.

Nobody into the pool. Ever.

A Visit To The Dushanbe Zoo

Sometimes old zoos have cute scale and charm. And sometimes they're just old. Which has its own charm, just probably not for the animals.

Alligator pen, funky mix of brick, rock, astro-turf and patio tile meant to look like pebbles. The gator doesn't seem to care.

Goats, gazing. "Where is the Amazon truck?" Bright colors. No animals.

Coyotes, making the most of their back alley-looking enclosure.

Boar, rooting. Probably not finding any truffles. Is that green liquid spent nuclear fuel? Snake cage. Wait, that's a pipe.

Ode to Garry Winogrand. Make your own entertainment.

A Traveling Zoo In Uzbekistan

Sometimes the zoo comes to you. If you live in a small town in Central Asia, there probably isn't any sort of zoo and you never get to see live, exotic animals. Until the zoo rolls into town.

Bright colors in a drab landscape. The traveling zoo hits Zarafshon, Uzbekistan.

The setup is nothing more than a series of trailers, cages with a side that opens up. Lonely lion.

The trailers are arranged wagon train style, in a U shape, creating a sort of inner courtyard, some privacy to the attraction. You gotta buy a ticket to see the animals.

It's a sad spectacle. An old-school, small cage existence for the animals, causing a bear to pace and a lion to zone out.

Put those animals anywhere. Maybe you see an ostrich, camel, llama, a goat.

Non-Animal Attractions At The Tashkent Zoo

When you're bored with looking at the animals at the zoo, find other diversions, preferably with bright colors. 

Kiddie car ride.

Can toss. Detail of the sculpture at the entrance.

The swing ride.

Real tree, fake leaves. Chinese warrior on a bouncy slide.

Balloon bust.

Getting Cagey At The Tashkent Zoo

They've done what they could in making (believe) the cages at the Tashkent Zoo look like natural environments. Maybe natural is a stretch. Some fake rocks and a paint job are more fun than a white box. 

Sweet touch with the birds flying through.

The painted desert in a terrarium. Heat pipes in the back.

Coyote house.

Doors of mystery.

Hippo tank.

Terrible Pictures Of Beautiful Animals At The Tashkent Zoo

It's a weird dichotomy at zoos. Exotic animals are more accessible than in the wild, yet the environments are awful. Nice animals, bad backgrounds. Or, maybe, great.

Hairy camel.

Fuzzy monkey. Fuzzy coyote.

Lazing lion.

Soft hippo. Tortoises.

Hungry yak.

Uncooperative goats. Flexing lions.

Lizards, somewhere.

Failing To Find Reality At The Surabaya Zoo

Zoos, by their definition, aren't a true reality for their captive residents. Animals in cages, species found continents apart now living next to each other. Surabaya has a decent zoo, a meandering property full of enclosures that try to look natural.

Morning feeding at the elephant enclosure, the painted background looking a little like a vintage Hollywood rear projection setup.

Part of a tiger. Flora, some real, some not.

Large rocky waterfall display for some sort of animal. Minus the creatures, water and real rocks.

Some real animals, cropped.

Nature, caged. An aviary.