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“…it felt like I’d walked
into a real rain forest.”

“…at a moment when my •JOHN VOY LES
heart needed consolation, My first visit to Brookfield Zoo was in November 2001

my brain chose to see it in as a child with my father. I recall visiting Tropic World and
how much it felt like I’d walked into a real rain forest. It was
the face of a rhinoceros.” overwhelming—the sheer scale of the building, the waterfall,

•PAULA J. FENZA seeing the monkeys in the trees and then looking down to
see the anteater and the tapir swimming through the water.
I started my on-site training as a Zoo docent one month after A bird flew and landed on a nearby branch. Seeing so many
my mother died following a long and heartbreaking battle species together really drove home what a special place the
with Alzheimer’s disease. I was so sunk in grief and exhaus- rain forest is.
tion that nothing was getting through to me. I came to my We’d had a very long visit and I was very much enjoying
first on-site training session fully intending to tell my mentor myself. I finally found the Aardvark House. I followed the
that I was dropping out of the program. Before I did so, two very active aardvarks as they moved about. I squealed
she took me to the Pachyderm House and introduced me to with delight. I’d never seen them in person before and had
Nakili, our eastern black rhinoceros. When I looked into his no idea how big they were! I read every sign, inspired by the
face, he seemed to be telling me, “Don’t worry, it’s going to active animals to find out everything I could. The Aardvark
get better.” House presented a lesser-known animal in such a special,
Now, I’m not crazy. I know if he was thinking anything focused way that it made me appreciate the animal on a
it was probably, “Hey, Lady, you got any food?” But at a deeper level and helped me see the impact zoos can have
moment when my heart needed consolation, my brain chose in elevating lesser-known animals.
to see it in the face of a rhinoceros. And from that moment, I was so exhausted afterwards that my dad had to
I began to feel better. When my father died three years later, carry me back to the car. I couldn’t wait to go back just
I knew exactly what to do. I went to Pachyderm House, sat to see them again!
down in front of Nakili, and told him, “OK, Nakili, you have
to do it again.” And he did. The Zoo will always be the place
where I find joy and happiness.

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