Lost Cebu City Zoo animals and Fr. Tropa

We learned recently about the transfer of animals at the Cebu City Zoo to Negros Oriental. This is sad not only for zoo workers but for many concerned citizens including me.

Many years ago (1971), Fr. Eleuterio Tropa put up a mini zoo at the public market square in Poblacion, Barili. Among the wild animals he brought there was a big snake, a baby python according to him, which he bought in Vietnam for $5.

During the stay of the zoo in Barili, I invited Fr. Tropa to my biology class at the Sta. Ana Academy to talk on animal behavior. He willingly came (barefoot as usual) with a big box carried by two zoo workers who placed it on the table.

Fr. Tropa spoke on many things about nature. He said that animals would respond to kind treatment. Briefly, he discussed the habitat and behavior of animals, particularly those that are kept in the zoo.

He talked about how to take care of the environment to preserve ecological balance and of the need to reforest denuded hills and mountains. After his talk, he asked me to pose for a picture-with the snake inside the box.

In all the years I taught biology, I never touched a live snake. So how could I endure the fright? But Fr. Tropa insisted that that the snake was harmless. He called one of my students, Teofanes Baruel (who later became Barili’s agricultural officer) to join us.

Zoos are field trip destinations for science/ biology students. There, they can observe animal behavior, among others.

The animals in the Cebu City Zoo are gone. But in the words of Dr. Alice Utlang, “They may no longer be with us, but at least we were part of their history.--