During the trip to the Beekse Bergen, where I also took the pictures of the birds of prey show, I didn't just see a birds of prey show.
Unfortunately I can't even show everything I've seen because my telephoto lens decided to stop working for good. But I was able to photograph the first half of the day.

The Seals for example!

Often on days when you go to an animal park you don't see the animals very active. This day the Seals were playing with each other. At least, I'm assuming it was playing, and they weren't fighting. Anyway, it resulted in some nice photo moments for me ...

Now you can ask yourself whether animal parks are still up to date. Whether animal parks should still be allowed at all. Finally, we prefer to see an ideal world with all animals in freedom and not in captivity.

But the reality paints a different picture. Many zoos have established breeding programs to ensure that the animals can slowly grow in numbers again because many animals are unfortunately threatened with extinction due to human actions.

This breeding program and the maintenance of the animals, of course, costs a pretty penny. So these zoos don't have that much choice. If they want to give the animals a good life, in a good way. Offer them a good living environment, and also maintain a breeding program, then they have to open to the public to earn back part of their costs. In addition, visits to these kinds of animal parks are also made more and more educational, which in my opinion can lead to people who are more aware of the world in which we live.

Frankly, I can only applaud that.

I learned something new

I will honestly admit that I did not know that the seal is the largest predator here in the Netherlands and is at the top of the food chain without natural enemies.
The Seal does have natural enemies, but they do not live in the Netherlands. The Seal does live in the Netherlands!

What has been a problem for the Seal for years, also in the Netherlands, is human actions. Fortunately, seal pups have not been allowed to be killed here for years, but what is not allowed ... or what does not happen, there is often a big difference unfortunately!

To return for a moment to the educational aspect of zoos.

Did you know that:

• Seals can imitate sounds and even words.
  
  

• Seals don't drink salt water, but they can get fresh water from the fish they eat. If they can't find enough food, they have to be extra careful with their water. That's why they hold their pee in longer.
  
  

• Young seals must teach themselves to catch and eat fish. Their mother does not teach them how to fish. Young seals therefore often lose a lot of weight in the first period after the mother's milk has stopped. When things go well, they learn to catch fish better and better.
  
  

• Seals always have cold feet.
  
  

Just some fun facts!

Is this important to know? Maybe not right away, but I certainly thought it was interesting. And I think that especially for children, these kinds of things are very influential to make them aware of the world and life around them from an early age. To protect them from the mistakes that previous generations have made consciously or unconsciously for years.
And in my view it is essential that we have as much knowledge as possible, because that ensures that we can make better decisions.

Zoos can certainly help to spread the knowledge needed to preserve the animal world.

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