Posts tagged Human Animal

Soggy grass. We were wet all over. In an attempt to escape we locked our Keeper in the box and ran away. One of the watchers set him free. We were not impressed. We begged for food again but only received sweet, unhealthy morsels of the kind that makes our keeper very upset. We are beginning to appreciate his fruit and vegetables. Our box was wet and slippery and steamed up constantly. It was difficult to have five inside. There is no privacy for an enclosed creature. From all sides those intense eyes stared at us. Still, we have enjoyed our stay in Shanghai and look forward to the upcoming week of adventures in our enclosure. The Expo is very busy and crowded. However, in our pen, surrounded by all these open and warm people, we feel quite peaceful. They are very playful – not only the children!

Today we were upstaged by a famous vogue model and a Chinese celebrity. Our watchers quickly turned to the stars and we were devastated.  The ground was still wet, the food was still boring and now our entertaining audience had disappeared.
We began to stake out our territory and noticed that two men in suits were watching from the hill, arms folded as if they were superior to us.  I stood on the box arms folded and staring to out rank them. They did not approach our pen. It worked. We realised later that one of them was Peter Mandelson!

There were too many puddles for us to enter our pen today. Instead we went to a strange human animal market in downtown Shanghai and watched hundreds of local human animals at work and play. Very entertaining. It was fun but slightly intimidating to be in the open space. I am glad we found our way home. We are beginning to appreciate our Human Keeper.

Lazy animals today.  Lots of lying around. We locked the Keeper in the box and he called for help on his mobile. A child tried to join our pack but eventually we returned him to his mother. She seemed unfazed by the fact that he was with us in our pen for a long time despite the signs that warn we can be dangerous.  I guess she had witnessed that we are actually very safe and really kind. However, as we are all women, some of the men do look scared! We find this very amusing!

Today we had to beg for food from the watchers. Our Keeper tried to stop them feeding us but we are devious and cunning. We received sweet potato, chocolate and cake. We were surprised to witness a teenage girl growling like a tiger at us for over an hour and a small child punching his mother when she embarrassed him. It has been very quick for the audience to become the performers. Not many of them have noticed this but they are very entertaining indeed!

Our Human Animal Keeper is ill. We were served very boring food tonight – just carrots and celery. Some of us were hungry and angry. Xiao Ke, one of our Chinese Human Animals translated some of the comments she heard from the watchers – ‘If you eat their food you are an animal’.   They are confident watchers and stare at us for hours. They are hard to intimidate.

Tonight we were moved – all eight Human Animals  - to our new enclosure in the Urban Park of the UK Pavilion at Shanghai Expo. Our pen is in front of the beautiful Seed Cathedral, the most exquisite backdrop we have been given so far. It was hot and balmy and hundreds of Chinese human animals watching and snapping away with their fancy cameras. These humans stare at us and engage in intense eye contact. They speak a strange vocal language but their body language is similar to ours. Very few of them seem to be shy, especially not the children.