Uzbekistan, like the rest of the world, is debating whether wild exotic animals should be kept in zoos. Environmentalists point to the inadmissibility of keeping them in such places and call for a more responsible attitude to keeping them in cages.
However, there is a small zoo in the country that, according to its owners, helps animals, including exotic ones, that cannot survive in the wild for a number of reasons.
In April this year, a lion park – ‘Lion Park’ – opened in the Parkent district of Tashkent region. It used to be a shelter and veterinary clinic for lions. Now in addition to 17 lions, the park has 4 ostriches and one Russian brown bear. There are also hedgehogs, an eagle called Graf, rabbits, pigeons and ponies.
All these animals would not survive in the wild, park director Akmal Tashkenbayev said.
Most of them ended up here for various reasons, but mostly because of irresponsible people.
‘Some were rescued from their previous owners, some were exchanged, some could not be kept and were given to us, and some animals we took from zoos to relieve the lions from the attention of visitors,’ Akmal says.The park’s very first resident is a lion named Alex. When he was 2 months old he was brought from Africa. But the people who brought him back couldn’t keep him at home and brought the lion cub to a veterinary clinic. He is now 9 years old.
‘Alex cannot be released into the wild because he has no lower tusks,’ said Akmal Tashkenbayev.
Alex bred with the lioness Laura, and from them the other lions were born. There are six lion cubs in the park. Alex now lives in a glass cage with a female and four lion cubs.
‘There are now four lions and one lioness living in another enclosure. Another pair has already formed and a separate pen and enclosure is being built for them. They will soon be moved to another enclosure as the lion is already jealous of his lioness,’ says Akmal.
‘Our aim is to preserve the population of African wildlife, particularly African lions. After all, the number of wild animals in the world is rapidly decreasing. And the big goal is to create a safari park on 10 hectares of open space,’ says the park’s director.
Tashkenbayev said the land is already available and plans to start building the safari park this winter so that it will be ready by spring.
After a blogger visited Lion Park and promoted it on his blog, it led to a dramatic increase in visitors. This has its pros and cons. The park receives more funds for development and plans to create a safari tour in the near future. However, such an influx causes stress for the animals, especially when parents rush to take pictures of children with lion cubs despite their own children’s fear, says the park’s director.
‘There were times when a child would drop a lion cub out of fright. And while a two-month-old lion cub can land on its feet, it is difficult for very young ones. Some even try to repeat the scene from The Lion King, which the zoo condemns and warns visitors to be careful when handling lion cubs,’ Akmal Tashkenbayev said.
The zoo employs eight staff members, but this is not enough, especially given the construction of new animal facilities. The core staff are employees who have been working since the orphanage period. They have experience and rapport with the pets, and the animals are getting used to the smell of the people feeding them and are more trusting of them.
Small wounds and minor problems are treated on site, the zoo has its own veterinarian. And for serious cases, the park co-operates with veterinarians from zoos across the country.
The park director says that keeping lions in captivity has its advantages. For example, while in the wild they live an average of 10-14 years, the life expectancy of lions in captivity is usually 15 to 25 years.
In zoos or reserves, the health of animals is monitored, preventive examinations, vaccinations and inoculations are carried out. The enclosures are cleaned every day. All of these measures help increase the life expectancy of wild animals, Tashkenbayev said.
The lions are fed regularly – every two days they are each given 25kg of meat. This is done to prevent the lions from becoming lazy, Tashkenbayev explained. After all, in the wild, lions hunt and go to bed immediately after eating, but in the park they do not have such a mobile lifestyle as in the wild they have to keep them toned up.
‘Lions are predators, so their diet should consist mainly of meat. Usually meat from large animals such as beef, chicken, lamb or specially processed wild meat is used,’ he said.
The season ends by early November and then all the lions will be in pens. They will only be released temporarily during the winter, but they will spend about four months in the enclosure. They will be released looking at the weather. The enclosures are ready for winter, the pens are insulated, warm guns are put up and wooden pallets are laid on the ground and hay is piled on top.
‘The lions have already survived three winters and so there are no problems, they are adapted, you could say, because they were born here,’ Akmal said.
Environmentalists are against keeping wild animals in closed enclosures
Meanwhile, environmentalists and animal rights activists are drawing attention to the inadmissibility of keeping wild animals in cages and pointing out a number of drawbacks of keeping them in Lion Park.
In an interview with CABAR.asia, Nozimakhon Rakhimova, Outreach Coordinator of the Mehr va Oqibat Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, told CABAR.asia that they have repeatedly drawn attention to shortcomings in the work of the park when it was a lion sanctuary.
She said that representatives of the Mehr va Oqibat Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals had visited the place twice. And both times they found violations in the maintenance of the lions.
‘The first time was in November 2022. At that time there was a pair of adult lions and a lion cub in need of veterinary care. The animals were kept in terrible conditions. The second time Mehr va Oqibat visited the private zoo was in November 2023. At that time there were already about 30 wild animals there. All the animals had overdue rabies vaccinations. They were fed by the owner’s wife and children, which was dangerous. There were private houses around the zoo, which was also unacceptable. In both cases, our society appealed to the Ministry of Ecology, from which the zoo owner has a permit, but the norms for keeping animals were not observed,’ says Nozimakhon Rakhimova.
‘Mehr va Oqibat, as an animal rights organisation, is against keeping wild animals in cages unless there are vital indications, she said.
Photo by CABAR.asia
She points out that many exotic animals can be dangerous to humans because they retain their unpredictable wild nature and are physically capable of maiming and killing their owners.
“We are against it because it is bad for the animals themselves, they are taken out of their natural habitat, also transportation most do not survive, there is no proper care, no specialized nutrition as in the natural environment and they are kept in cages, which in itself is also unnatural. We are in favor of pets not being homeless and wild animals living in nature, in their habitat,” she says.
Feruzbek Sayfullayev, spokesman for the Environmentalist public association and a correspondent for the ekolog.uz website, also noted a number of shortcomings he found when visiting the Lion Park zoo.
He says there were no warning signs with rules such as ‘don’t feed the animals’, ‘don’t tease’, ‘don’t put your hands in the cages’, ‘don’t litter’, etc. on the cages with lions.
He adds that lion cubs separated from their mothers were used for photo shoots with visitors.
‘A few baby lion cubs were kept separated from their mothers and they were meant for shoots with guests. When I asked the staff why the lion cubs were not near their mothers, I was told, ‘The mothers did not accept them, so we take care of them ourselves’.’ But this answer did not satisfy me. In nature it sometimes happens that females give up their cubs, but it happens very rarely. Perhaps one or two cases of such abandonment are possible, but here several lion cubs were separated from their mothers. And the question arose as to the truth of the statement that they were rejected by all the mothers. I noticed that the lion cubs looked frightened and tired as several visitors wanted to take pictures with them, which made me wonder,’ Feruzbek said.
The park administration should pay more attention to creating a safe and comfortable environment for the animals, concludes Feruzbek Sayfullayev.
‘Lions are predators, so their diet should consist mainly of meat. Usually meat from large animals such as beef, chicken, lamb or specially processed wild meat is used,’ he said.