“Hello there, bear! How are you this fine evening?” asked the peacock.

““Fine evening? Not for me! Here comes the evening guard. He has already started banging his stick against my metal railing! The annoying sound always makes me anxious. I can’t even scare him away, or else I’ll be labelled as wild or dangerous,” the bear grumbled as he walked to his food supply.

“Oh, great! He forgot to pour water into my bowl again. How will I survive this place with its extreme temperatures if he never does his duty? How is it for you, Monkey?” the bear called out to the monkeys’ cage.

“It’s the usual. No food, no water. Just the guard making faces at us and taking pictures with the camera flash on. It always blinds me and makes me panic. All of us miss our trees in those green jungles where we freely roamed and lived the way we wanted. This city is a mix of blinding lights, cacophonous traffic, heat and guards who misuse their position,” one of the monkeys replied.

The parrot, upon hearing the conversation, squawked angrily. “Clearly, the idea of taking proper care of animals is overrated in this zoo! It’s always the worst for us birds. We barely have our cages cleaned! That guard, who’s supposed to report any problems with cleanliness, always makes excuses when he looks at the little shelters we have in our aviary. Most times, I hear him mutter phrases such as ‘Looks perfectly fine’ or ‘Could wait till tomorrow’, when we all know that he’s going to delay the cleaning until next week or longer.”

The cockatoo appeared beside the parrot and said, “How I hate this place! Only yesterday, the guard literally teased me by throwing stones towards me. He was more than happy to chase me all the way to the other side of the aviary. Fortunately, he was called by the zookeeper. I enjoyed every bit of the scolding he got for neglecting his duties.”

The peacock, who had been quiet throughout the conversation, said in a small, hurt voice, “Last evening, that guard sneaked up behind me and plucked out my beautiful blue-green feathers. He has collected a handful so far. I hissed at him and chased him to the exit. As if he hadn’t expected that behaviour from me, he fled to the aviary keeper and complained.”

From the other corner, the lion growled, “Gone are the days when I ruled the jungle. I still miss the time when everybody trembled when my paws touched the ground, and shook with fear and terror as I roared fiercely at my prey. Now, all I face is the guard mimicking my roar in his unfit voice as I am disgracefully stuffed into a cage unworthy of my size.”

The wise old elephant cocked his large, flapping ears and said in a deep, melancholic voice, “We have all been maltreated, neglected and uncared for. It is high time that this human learns a lesson. Listen! I have a plan...”

Later that night, when all was quiet and still, the guard was patrolling around the cages. He was about to take out his phone when a monkey grabbed it. The young man reacted violently, banging his fists on the bars of the cage.

The elephant was standing beside the bars of his cage. While the guard was distracted, he quietly reached into the guard’s back pocket with his long trunk and pulled out the keys to the aviary. He then passed the keys to another monkey, who unlocked the aviary door, freeing the cockatoos, parrots, peacocks and many other bird species.

The birds flew out of the aviary, while the monkeys and other animals followed the guard as he ran towards the lion’s enclosure. Soon, all the animals had surrounded him.

The lion stood at the front of his enclosure, with his mighty front paws pressed against the net. He roared with a ferocity reminiscent of his royal days in the jungle. The guard was petrified. He stood gazing at all the animals, terrified that they would hurt him.

The elephant then moved towards the guard and picked him up with his trunk. He carried him to the bear’s open-air enclosure and gently lowered him inside. All the animals stood around watching as the guard tried to find a way to escape, but, of course, the doors were locked. He sat down and cried in fear.

“Urggh! What does that smell?” he looked around to see where the horrible stench was coming from and realised that the enclosure hadn’t been cleaned for weeks!

A couple of hours later, he felt very thirsty. But all the containers were completely dry. There was not a drop to drink in the cage! There was no food either.

The guard felt thoroughly ashamed of himself. He was suffering the same fate as the bear and all the other animals he had mistreated since joining the zoo.

“I am so sorry,” he said. “I understand now... I had been so unkind to these innocent creatures,” the guard murmured to himself, genuinely ashamed of his actions.

Seeing this, the elephant lowered his trunk and curled it around the guard. He was horrified, but the elephant gently carried him outside the cage.

The guard understood what it all meant. He had learnt his lesson the hard way — but for good.

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 29th, 2026