A Day in the Zoo Summary
A Day in the Zoo Summary: ‘A day in the Zoo’ Written by Gerald Malcolm Durrell describes about interesting view of the zoo, and the experience of the zoo worker. The author wants to show, what it is to see the zoo as insider and in comparison to visiting a zoo as outsider.
The author begins by saying that it is very different experience to own a zoo, because then you are free to visit the zoo at any hour and see the animals. The day in a zoo begins early morning. Just before dawn, you can hear the birds sing and an earnest groups of peahens start to search for dewy grass for dancing. All the staffs of the zoo arrive at eight O’clock. All the staffs greet each other and starts to clean the whole place while cleaning one can hear the sounds made by their buckets and brushes. You can find lot of activities going on in long two storied granite house.
Where monkeys and other mammals live when the cleaning is going on, the gorillas are removed from their cage and they can be seen enjoying outside their cage. The gorillas try to twist the heaters and break the lights Stephen keeps a watch over the gorillas while mike cleans all the mess on the floor and scatters fresh white sawdust. The zoo employee ensure that everything is in order in the zoo. The birds salute you with mixed sounds and cry from upstairs of the house are can see variety of birds making noise. Birds like parrots, parakeets, mongoose, a hairy, armadillo, turacos etc can be seen in the zoo. The author describe about the touracos. He says if one calls the touracos, the bird will fly near the visitor and give a husky cry.
After the bird house is the reptile house. All the reptiles here sleep in a pleasant temperature of eighty degree you can see snakes, lizards and frogs laze around. The zoo gate opens at ten O’clock for the visitors. The zoo staffs have to stay alert during this time, not to make sure that animals don’t hurt the humans but to make sure that humans don’t hurt the animals many uncivilized behavior can be seen in the zoo. Many people throw stones at sleeping animals. Some even give lighted cigarettes and razor to chimpanzees. This kind on human behavior is hard to believe. The visitors starts to decrease by the evening. All the birds and other animals go to rest. At night the owl open their golden eyes and get ready for their night because they had slept the entire day.
The author shares his experience as an insider. The author can see the moon in the sky while lying in his bed. He can hear the lion cough. As the down arrives the birds starts to sing and another day begins in the zoo.
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