Kung Fu Zoo and Yoga, too

This zoo area is dark as a Siberian winter night. With a tinge of panic you feel your way forward until bumping into a barrier of vertical bars. Reaching out between the bars, your right hand makes contact with an angled limb ending in curved claws. Your left hand reacts when recognizing the form of an open mouth. The warm, caged figure is very still. It feels like a leopard, but at the same time is so human-like.

The silent, motionless forms in the darkness generate a surreal sense of relaxation suspended only by visitors' sporadic yelps of surprise and delight.

You find your way to other cages, examining through the bars an immobile crane, a snake, praying mantis, monkey and even a dragon. Farther away are a caged crow, locust, cobra and a cow…or was it a cat? Stumbling out into the light, the first things you notice are birds and a squirrel moving freely in the treetops.