Not your average zoo

I wasn't going to check out the zoo in Entebbe for a variety of reasons, the top of which is that I find zoos exploitative and depressing. However, the zoo was right near the Botanical Garden, I had time to kill, and a colleague of mine mentioned three times during a phone call that he really hoped I'd see the zoo.

Importantly, this "zoo" isn't called a "zoo" and rightly so.  It's called a "Wildlife Refuge" and seems to be somewhat socially responsible and ecologically friendly. I would call it a cross between a safari and a zoo- the distinction being that on a safari there are no fences and in a zoo there are.  Here there were fences, but often inadequate, only some of the animals were behind them, and sometimes it wasn't clear which side of the fence I was on.

This place was at times absolutely terrifying.

Now people over the age of five don't usually find zoos terrifying, so maybe that requires some explanation.

First I saw a sign about feeding leopards. It had comforting phrases like "Did you know leopards can hunt from trees?". Yet weirdly, there wasn't a leopard cage in sight. 

Then I saw mentioning a "Forest Walk" and some assorted trails (which in retrospect, may or may not have been part of said "Forest Walk".

The brush was dense and dark, there was so much scurrying around me, and I was entirely by myself-- not a guide or fellow patron in sight.  This is the moment when I envisioned myself being the leopard food.  I turned back when I reached this part which would have required me to either have a machete or to duck and crawl through the brush to stay on the "trail".

Thankfully, after I turned back and walked down another "trail" I saw this guy behind a fence and felt relieved.

On another "trail" there was a fence to one side of me and really thick brush to the other and on the decidedly wrong side of the fence was this sucker (4 foot long reptile):

I also have some vague memory of ostriches being aggressive.  Here's an ostrich at the zoo.  I'm not sure if you can see the fence, but it raises about 4 inches high, to approximately the ostriches ankle. Totally ineffective.

This sign was only on one fence. Not the lion cage, not the leopard cage, certainly not the ostrich "cage". I have no idea what animal was supposed to be on the other side.

 Throughout the park there were lots of signs about emergencies. It seems a little odd to have to call someone's cell phone if you get bitten by a wild animal but given the acreage to staff size of this place, my guess is that's the only way anyone would ever find you.