Rory FitzgeraldI still remember the day I came to see that stark reality myself, a long time ago in Fota Wildlife Park. I was standing next to the wire mesh fence looking at a cheetah in the distance, having ducked under the railing. To see what would happen, I poked my finger inside the wire. In a flash, the cheetah went from sitting placidly 20 yards distant to flying towards me, teeth bared, its flaming killer eyes intent on my finger. I withdrew it in horror, in the nick of time – just as the fastest land animal on earth crashed into the wire fence, hitting it and knocking me bodily backwards. It was a moment of primeval terror I will never forget. Well, as they say: like father, like daughter.
Not long ago we splashed out on an annual family membership to Dublin zoo. The ticket means you can also access other zoos and wildlife parks for free. You can also bring your friends along. That’s why we recently invited along some of the Cork cousins for a trip to Fota.
It was a bank holiday and so, naturally, the rain was torrential. This however meant we had the park almost to ourselves, more sensible – and drier – families having all stayed at home. In the gaps between downpours, the animals were very active. We saw tigers pacing up and down right in front of us and monkeys performing acrobatics.
The kids even made friends with a remarkably tame kangaroo. At Fota, they are left to wander freely and mingle amongst the people, which is great, for the most part. The kids stood quietly next to him and, once they had gained his confidence, they could even stroke him. It was magical for the kids, who soon took to hopping around like kangaroos with their new friend.
During one of the heavier showers we ducked into a nearby tent where there were all sorts of kids’ activities going on, including face painting.
Most of the kids chose to be painted as tigers and monkeys, but Rose – who has many kangaroo teddies – was intent on becoming a kangaroo, to become more at one with her new-found marsupial friend outside. The face painter did a great job and she soon looked like the real thing, except clad in a day-glo pink jacket.
She immediately asked me to bring her back out to ‘Jumpy’, her new kangaroo pal, to introduce herself in her new guise. In the event, ‘Jumpy’ was quite happy to see this kangaroo-human hybrid hop over to him, her two hands held up under her chin, beneath a happy grin. Unfortunately, Jumpy’s friend proved quite alarmed at the approach of this mutant kangaroo, who presumably was inadvertently showing hostile kangaroo body language.
So this other kangaroo hopped sternly up to a smiling hopping Rosie and punched her in the face.
It was tragic to see her happy face crumble instantly to shock and then inconsolable tears. “The kangaroo punched me,” she kept saying over and over in distraught disbelief. I shooed the animal away, and hugged her – wiping the kangaroo fur from her face paint – saying, “that silly kangaroo didn’t know how to play nicely”.
A cuddly seeming creature had suddenly acted aggressively, inflicting pain. It was a little of Rosie’s innocence lost. Her world would not seem quite as safe as it did before – at least not where kangaroos are concerned.