Safe

I have not walked through Ljubljana Zoo for a long time, although videos of playful tiger cubs and the charmingly awkward giraffe Pietruška always make me smile.

Still, animals living behind enclosures, nets and thick glass often leave me wondering how they truly feel. Many might choose freedom, if they knew how to survive in it. It is hard to believe that giant orcas and snow-white belugas, always seeming to smile, feel better in captivity than in the open ocean.

And yet zoos and similar institutions have a noble role. Siberian tigers are an endangered species, and the animals in Ljubljana Zoo appear to be doing very well. A few months ago, I left the oceanarium in Valencia deeply moved by the story of two belugas rescued from Kharkiv at the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Marine biologists made every effort to bring the endangered mammals to safety in an exceptionally risky rescue operation.