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Baghdad Zoo rebounds from war-time closing

Soldiers with 15th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division have taken on some wild responsibilities in Baghdad’s Al-Zawra Park.

The park is inside the Green Zone at Forward Operating Base Prosperity and has walking paths, a small amusement park, horse stables and the Baghdad Zoo.

“It was kind of a shock because I didn’t know they had a zoo,” Sgt. 1st Class Herbert Mowery said in an Army press release.

Mowery, the special projects noncommissioned officer for the 15th BSB, recently moved with his battalion from Forward Operating Base Falcon in southern Baghdad to FOB Prosperity.

“It was a welcome surprise,” Mowery said.

The zoo was once one of the largest in the Middle East, a home to more than 600 animals at its prime, though that number has dwindled significantly, the release said.

According to the zoo’s assistant director, the zoo closed for about five months after the war began in March 2003. During that time, staff members who lived on the grounds continued to care for the animals. “As far as I know, they only lost one animal during that whole time,” Mowery said in the release.

The assistant director, who helped open the zoo in 1978, said that while attendance is still much lower than he would like to see, things are going well.

Mowery is hoping that with the 15th BSB’s assistance the area will continue to improve and that more residents will take advantage of park.

The battalion has done an assessment of the park facilities. 1st Lt. Gabrielle Caldara, the brigade’s environmental officer, collected water samples from the park.

“I’m looking at three general parameters. It's Ph level, chlorine and bacteria. It's just a general assessment and visual inspection otherwise," Caldara said in the release. “There are standing water issues but that is just from their sprinkler system, which will probably evaporate, but there is some chlorine in their water, a small amount, but generally speaking it’s very well maintained considering the surroundings,” she said.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for the soldiers was when the assistant director took them into the cheetahs’ habitat, where they were actually able to pet the two tame cats.

“The cheetahs were pretty cool,” Caldara said.