Should you pay to visit a zoo?

On our last day in Mexico City we visited Chapultepec Zoo. It is free. And it is tired. The big cats had nice enclosures but many other animals appeared to be living in a cement cell. Big, but without greenery, water or objects to entertain them.

We don’t visit many zoos because we prefer to see animals in more natural environments, but I was interested to see the pandas, as the zoo boasts a successful breeding program. We saw one very sleepy panda and another which was walking around in circles.

In fact, when I looked through my photos, the only photos I took at the zoo was this panda walking around in circles.

So what is the value of paying to enter a zoo? It is often costly, but it surely brings in revenue to maintain it and provide comfort for the animals.

Perhaps we shouldn’t have visited the Chapultepec Zoo after all.