Baghdad Zoo Rises From the Ashes

Looking for signs that the quality of life is improving in Iraq? Here's one: Visits to the Baghdad Zoo are up — way up — in the 18 months since the war-torn nation first saw a sharp fall in violence, as well as the withdrawal of US troops in the city center in June.

"When security improved, we started to live our normal lives again after a dark period of violence," teacher Basima Abbas, visiting the zoo with her children, told Reuters. "We want to live normal lives like everyone else in the world."

Like almost everything else in Iraq, the Baghdad Zoo suffered significantly during the periods of heaviest fighting several years back. Hundreds of animals died of hunger and thirst, escaped or were shot by US troops. But today, the zoo population is back up to a robust 1,070 animals. Its Siberian tigers gave birth to twins this summer (cute!) and they are anxiously awaiting the arrival of an elephant and giraffe, which one zoo official said will complete their exotic menagerie.

In another optimistic sign, officials are desperately trying to expand al-Zawraa park, which contains the zoo, and have asked the government to return 350 acres of land that morphed into the Green Zone several years back, that oft-mentioned area containing government offices and embassies once controlled by US forces.

In 2005, around 200,000 people visited the park over the three- or four-day Muslim festival of Eid. But this year, a staggering three million Iraqis from all over the country poured into its 400 acres during the holiday at the start of October, an increase of approximately a bazillion percent. (OK, not exactly, but it's a lot.)

"I expect the number of visitors to the park by the end of the year will number eight million, from all Iraqi cities," Salah Abu al-Lail, the general director parks and gardens, told Reuters.

The numbers could not be verified, but the point is Iraqis want their zoo and their open space. It's a heartening sign in an area that had little to celebrate only a few years earlier.

Photo courtesy of Paraflyer via Wikimedia Commons.