One day a Giraffe and her calf were resting when the little calf began to ask his mother questions.
“Mom, why do we have such long necks?” inquired the young calf, observing his mother’s long, stiff neck.
“Are necks are long so we can eat leaves from the tops of the highest trees” explained the giraffe.
The calf thought about it for a bit, then came up with another question.
“What about this pattern on our skins? Why do we have these colors and these spots?” continued the calf.
“Our patterns are special because they help us camouflage in the jungle” replied his mother endearingly.
“Camouflage?” The calf had never heard this word before and became confused.
“yes, camouflaging helps us hide in the jungle, because our patterns blend in with the yellow and brown grass. It keeps predators away from us” explained the giraffe to her child, licking the top of his head to clean it.
“And what about our long legs?” the calf got up and started to trot around.
“Our long legs help us run fast. As fast as up to 35 miles an hour” boasted the giraffe to her child.
The young calf sat quietly for a while. “We have a long neck to eat from tall trees in the jungle. Our pattern blends in with the jungle grass and our long legs allow us to run very fast, everywhere we can” said the calf thoughtfully, and his mother nodded in agreement.
“Then why are we in the zoo mom?” The young giraffe inquired confusedly. “In this small enclosure with no tall trees, and no yellow and brown grass. There is no place to run around with our long legs, and no predators we have to camouflage from”
The Giraffe was surprised at her calf’s question. She did not know how to answer him. She had been brought into the zoo ever since she was a calf herself and had been there for human’s entertainment since then. In this narrow zoo, their interesting variety of traits made for the jungle, were of no use because they were in captivation.
Moral: captivating wild animals doesn’t do justice to the special traits that they have.