Source: Wikipedia
During the last holiday home, my mother passed me some old books which once belonged to me as a child. I didn't even know she kept them safely all these years! And one of them was a "Reptiles and Amphibians" picture book which I used to be very fond of. It had to be over 25 years ago that I used it, but I distinctly remembered all the pictures the moment I picked it up. I suppose I spent a lot of time observing the details on the animals of this book. Funny enough (except for the amphibians), thanks to my stint at the zoo, I can talk about all the reptiles in this book now!
I wonder if this book had anything to do with my sense of familiarity towards reptiles when I got the chance to volunteer at the zoo.
Going by the image of the Galapagos Tortoise in that book, I won't be surprised if anyone thought their shell was made of stone
This page even has young-Shu's artistic-fail abilities, evident from an early age.
I wonder if a kid looking at these same pictures 25 years from now will be able to see all these creatures in the wild.
The World Rhino Day falls on 22 September. While at the zoo, I noticed a booth set up to raise awareness about the plight of rhinoceroses in the wild. The zoo was working closely with TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and Wildlife Conservation Society (Vietnam) to stamp out illegal trade of rhino horns. The staff at the booth were collecting nail clippings from visitors in a large glass jar (ewww!) to which I donated mine after duty too. The lesson to take away was that endangered rhino populations are killed unnecessarily to get their horn, which is made of the same stuff as our not-so-noteworthy nails.
It is also worth noting that Katy Kat decided to give volunteering at the zoo a try. What's not too known about this only-child is she loves animals (mostly dogs!) and grew up surrounded by them. She had her interview yesterday and it looks like her interviewers were very pleased with her. I'm awfully proud of you, Katy Kat!
