We’re looking forward to the hard-cover Look Book featuring the Great Bend Brit Spaugh Zoo. This project from the Convention & Visitors Bureau will be available soon, according to C&V Director Christina Hayes. It will be filled with history and great photography. While we’re waiting, why not plan a trip to Great Bend’s zoo? It’s free.
Moo Deng, a baby pygmy hippopotamus who lives at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Si Racha, Chonburi, Thailand, became an internet sensation in 2024. We may not have any cute babies to compete with the world-famous Moo Deng, but our zoo has acquired new animals. Last year, a Lar Gibbon named Maggie arrived at the zoo to share an exhibit with Manny. A pair of Clouded Leopards named Harry and Ping arrived in the Fall of 2023 but it wasn’t until 2024 that we got a good look at them.
There was a time when Great Bend’s zoo was something of a senior center for geriatric animals. In recent years, we’ve lost a few beloved elderly mammals but we’ve also gotten some newbies. Each of the animals at our zoo is there for our education as well as our entertainment. They are also there as part of an effort to aid in their wellbeing and, in some cases, the conservation of their species. It is estimated that fewer than 10,000 adult clouded leopards still live in the wild.
In its review of 2024, Time magazine noted the role of animals in our lives. “Observing animals, whether online or in person, can be therapeutic in many ways,” said University of Washington psychology professor emeritus David Barash. He added that they can provide a comforting distraction when people are “depressed by the state of the world.”
The Great Bend Zoo’s animals are also online, featured regularly with photos and sometimes short videos on the Great Bend Brit Spaugh Zoo Facebook page. Today we saw Manny eating the carrot nose on a snowman the zookeepers made for him. The zoo’s animals often grace the pages of the Great Bend Tribune as well.
With so much of today’s news causing distress, these are indeed “wild times.” We welcome the distraction that comes from enjoying animals, whether they are our own fur babies or fantastic creatures at our zoo.
