Every so often, I finish a book that I enjoyed so much that I immediately purchase the sequel, or another book by the same author. I may not read it right away, but it sort of jumps the line ahead of other books I was planning on reading. Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo by Lawrence Anthony and Graham Spence, narrated by Simon Vance, is one such book. I purchased it immediately upon finishing The Elephant Whisperer, which tells the story of conservationist Lawrence Anthony saving a herd of elephants.
In 2003, Lawrence Anthony seemed to be closing in on stability. The herd of elephants--once considered so unsafe that previous owners had considered just killing the herd outright--he had purchased for his reserve in South Africa had finally acclimated well to their new home. His game reserve seemed to be doing fine, with plans in place to add territory from local Zulu tribes and bring more economic opportunity to the region.
After seeing footage of the state of the zoo in Baghdad, once considered the greatest zoo in the Middle East, Anthony decided to take on a mission that would make saving a herd of rowdy elephants seem like a cakewalk. He more or less sweet talked his way into Kuwait, and was very possibly the first independent (non-contractor) civilian to enter Iraq after March 20, 2003.
The state of the Baghdad Zoo was, of course, dismal. Around 95% of its 600+ animals had been killed or stolen. This is where the story really begins. As with all great stories, Babylon's Ark is really a story about people and people's place in the world, and Anthony tells us all about the humanity of the people involved in saving the animals. It is in many respects a story about finding hope and doing...something, anything...to show some compassion where it might not exist otherwise.
The sheer brilliance and beauty of humanity on display here is inspiring and brought me to the brink of tears several times: the zoo workers who walked several miles each day in a war zone to care for the animals without pay; the soldiers who would toss rations into the animals' cages to keep them going one more day; the officers and unit commanders who did everything in their power to support the animals while waging a war; the anonymous soldier, seen only once, who donated a much-needed generator and asked for no thanks and no recognition; the workers from various animal aid groups that came to Baghdad in the midst of war to help.
Of course, it's easy to highlight the basic humanity of people doing objectively good things. But Lawrence Anthony goes further. He recognizes, both conceptually and personally, the humanity of the average Iraqi, many of whom were forced to steal and scavenge to survive. While looters at the zoo were common and incredibly frustrating early on, Anthony recognized that the vast majority of them were not dangerous and were only trying to help their families survive. Anthony recognized that the zoo and its surrounding park would be a boon to the millions of people living in Baghdad.
This basic idea--that by helping animals, one can also help people--is succinctly summarized at the end of the book. The idea of a humanity that exists apart from or above nature has given us the world we live in today. (I almost wrote "see" instead of "live in"--see how easy it is for us to separate ourselves from the natural world.) This book doesn't have to take place in the middle of a war zone to have its message. But it does, and that only strengthens it.
Babylon's Ark tells a story of the collateral damage of war that we often ignore, but in the midst of that war, we see people doing their best to find something worth saving. Babylon's Ark is a story of hope and humanity, and I hope you'll take the time to read it.
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