Lawrence Anthony Research Paper

Lawrence Anthony’s Babylon’s Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Bagdad Zoo begins with Operation Iraqi Freedom on 20 March 2003, launching Ba'athist Iraq into disorder and anarchy. The American coalition defeated Saddam’s conventional army within a month and subsequent fighting then began against loyalist factions. But inside the street-to-street fighting of the capital city, the Baghdad Zoo stood indifferent. Despite lacking international acknowledgement and support, the plight of the Baghdad Zoo drew the attention of a South African game warden, Lawrence Anthony.

Using cliental contacts, Anthony was approved to depart for Kuwait; however, his noble intentions proved a bureaucratic nightmare. After several days of meeting with Kuwaiti and military official and further utilization of contacts within the American military, Anthony received proper clearance and two staff members from the Kuwaiti Zoo. The trio traveled on rural backroads in order to reach Bagdad without encountering convoy or explosive attacks. Entering the city, they were directed to Al Zawra’a Park which shared a perimeter with the hazardous Red Zone. The zoo survived inside the park in utter dismay: rampant looting removed any commodity light enough to carry, the entire zoo was dependent upon a single jury-rigged water pipe, and of the zoo’s original 650 animals only 35 survived, those too dangerous to be killed for butchering.

Upon the arrival of Anthony’s foreign aid, prewar zoo workers returned to their positions at the zoo. The daily routine

The Baghdad Zoo now contains some 1,070 animals and enjoys 8 million annual visitors. Following his four months in Iraq, Lawrence Anthony returned to South Africa and formed the Earth Organization to further environmental and conservational efforts