The last thing you expect to see when you visit a zoo are a bunch of dead animals. Rather, you expect to see animals. Lively and spright, and definitely not dreading the enclosed environment that keeps them from ever being able to freely run and roam. My mother mentioned how many zoo animals have gone insane from being in the same small room for their entire lives, kind of like how patients of insane asylums become. I don’t know how true this was, but it brought a bittersweet taste to our visit to the Bronx Zoo, and it definitely was a cherry on the top when we saw a field full of tombstones in the middle of the zoo.
The image you see is an animal cemetery. But the tombstones aren’t for specific animals, they’re for entire species that have gone extinct. If a cemetery for entire species does not scare you, I don’t know what’s up. As we discussed in class, we are currently in our 6th great extinction, our last one being the extinction of most life from meteors. The problem only gets juicier as we learn that anthropologic emissions have only helped to accelerate the process. Fluctuations in climate, geography, and biodiversity is normal. But we have severely sped up the loss of biodiversity, especially from the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest that holds over 50% of Earth’s biodiversity. These facts don’t normally impact us, the consumers at the end of the long chain of resource-gathering, processing, and selling. All we see are neatly-packaged goods that are conveniently priced, in conveniently-placed stores, for our convenient use. And I’m guilty to say that when I went to visit the Bronx zoo, this is exactly what I expected. Neatly-packaged animals living in neat and clean boxes so I could watch them as they kind of just… stood there. Gripping aspects of the inconveniences of our reality often come when we least expect it. And seeing the lifeless animals wander around, with a cemetery that spelled every species’ inevitable fate sure put me in a morbid mood. There must be more ways to connect the common public demographic to these realities. Scary because its real, the destruction of our Earth and its inhabitants is reaching a tipping point and we as individuals must do our best to spread awareness and do our part.
Hugh – this is a very poignant photo, especially the way you explained it and captioned it.
It is very shocking to see the graves of entire species which no longer exist in this world. We are losing species that we never knew existed, and will now never know about or be able to learn from, and it’s disheartening, to say the least. Thank you for this thought-provoking photo.
Hey Hugh, I totally agree that one of the biggest problems we need to address is how to make people care about problems like this which we don’t often experience first hand. We need to care about these extinctions, before they are reflected as financial consequences that affect our bank accounts, when they are still preventable. This species cemetery at the Bronx zoo definitely feels like an important attempt.
This is actually really saddening to see. I remember as we were welcoming in the New Year, I saw on my social media newsfeed an article – something along the lines of “Let’s look at all the animals that went extinct in 2018!” It’s kind of a punch in the face because we’re forced to realize that not only do our actions have consequences, but these consequences also fall on other species that never asked for this type of fallout because of our unsustainable ways of living. These species are gone, never to be seen again, so we really should be asking ourselves: is what we’re doing worth their lives?
Wow. Very powerful. Sad commentary.