Under the Green Willow

RUNNING THE NUMBERS, BY MAJOR WILLIAM SUMNER

The author shaving Lumpy the Camel.

Looking back at the time I spent in Iraq, I can see that it was dominated by numbers. The military tracked the number of kilowatt hours of electricity generated, gallons of water produced, truckloads of trash and rubble removed, and amounts of money spent, all in an effort to monitor the reconstruction effort. At the Baghdad Zoo, we had our own list. We tracked how many animals were rescued, how much food they needed, and how large an amount of other routine items were needed to keep the zoo open and the staff employed amid the chaos of a typical day in Baghdad. There were always too many problems to deal with and not enough time in the day to get everything done, but somehow we all managed to make it.

Conservationist Brendan Whittington-Jones compiled a list of numbers that highlighted some of the high and low points of our time (2003–2004) at the Baghdad Zoo. This was our attempt to run the numbers.

0:   Institutions in Iraq that offer zoology courses
1:   Government-owned zoo in Iraq
1:   Camel who received a tour of Baghdad from the back of a Humvee
1:   Animal welfare organization established in Iraq
1:   Tiger killed by U.S. soldier
2:   Visitor cameras destroyed by monkeys
3:   Zoo workers and Iraqi contractors killed or attacked while working with us
3:   Animals that died due to an infectious disease outbreak (two lions and one bear)
3:   Attempts to rescue Samir, the Luna Park bear
4:   Amount of times the windows at Dr. Murrani’s house were blown out
6:   Rocket attacks on Al-Rasheed Hotel (where Brendan and fellow conservationist Lawrence Anthony initially lived)
6:   Near misses with car bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs)
7:   Car accidents in eight months
8:   US Army veterinarians who made significant contributions to the zoo
12:   Animals that were left in the zoo after the war and looting rampage
14:   Iraqi, South African, American, and English volunteers who initially worked to save the zoo
16:   Arabian horses recovered after three failed attempts
19:   Lions at the zoo (who have since had multiple cubs)
20:   Dollars a month salary paid to zoo staff
27:   Animals darted successfully by mid-2004
60:   Dogs adopted and shipped to USA
88:   Animals (excluding dogs) rescued from appalling facilities around Baghdad
96:   Kilograms of meat used as feed every day at the zoo
130,000:    Dollars (approximate) contributed from the U.S. Army and Coalition Provisional Authority
140,000:   Dollars contributed (total) from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and WildAid

The Baghdad Zoo staff

Many other things occurred over the course of the year that I worked at the zoo, and I’m glad that we were able to tell the story of the animals and the work done to help them. The effort to rebuild the zoo and the surrounding park was a combination of many dedicated people, and most importantly there is no one person who can say that they singlehandedly did it all. Some, like me, did what they could while they were there, but the work continues to this day. 

Major William Sumner is co-author of Saving the Baghdad Zoo: A True Story of Hope and Heroes, which goes on sale today. He is a strategist in the U.S. Army. When on a routine mission to survey the damage that was done to the Baghdad Zoo in April 2003, he discovered the surviving animals were in serious trouble, and so initiated a series of rescue missions to save them. He lives in Nebraska.