Simon Armitage’s new poem, “The Moon and the Zoo,” celebrates 200 years of ZSL, blending wildlife wonder with the science and conservation work behind the scenes.
London’s zoo has long been a place where art and science share the same corridor, but few moments tie them together as neatly as Simon Armitage’s new commission for ZSL’s 200th anniversary.
Armitage’s poem. **“The Moon and the Zoo. ”** arrives as an animated. dreamlike night journey—one that doesn’t just romanticise animals. but links their hidden lives to the conservation charity’s mission.. The idea is simple and effective: while most people are asleep. the zoo’s nocturnal world becomes a stage for wonder. and the moon turns into a quiet witness to everything we rarely see.
ZSL was founded in 1826 and helped pioneer what many now recognise as modern zoological thinking.. London Zoo opened in 1828 for zoologists, including Charles Darwin, before opening to the public in 1847.. Over the centuries. creatives kept returning to the same address for inspiration—Edwin Landseer’s lions at Trafalgar Square. AA Milne’s “Winnie” story. Sylvia Plath’s Zoo Keeper’s Wife. and the lesser-known thread of Ted Hughes working briefly at the zoo.. Misryoum sees the continuity here as more than trivia: it’s a sign that wildlife institutions shape culture as well as research.
Armitage’s text begins with the world sleeping.. The moon “slides in under the turnstile after dark. ” moving through enclosures with an almost surgical attention—dabbling at a gibbon’s paw. smoothing a silverback’s fur. and shifting light into tiger and zebra imagery.. The style matters.. By casting the moon as an “incognito keeper and carer. ” the poem frames the animals’ night as both real and unknowable—active in darkness for some. a refuge from human disruption for others.
That framing is at the heart of the piece. because Armitage isn’t only describing what animals might do at night.. He’s also talking about why humans should care about what remains out of view.. During his time around animals and staff at London Zoo. he says he met a Mexican red-kneed spider. watched Sumatran tigers. and went behind the scenes in the reptile house.. His interest, Misryoum understands, is in the “secret lives” of animals—the thoughts and dreams we can only imagine.
In an era when conservation can feel like a set of distant headlines. Misryoum thinks the poem’s strength is its emotional realism: it treats care as labour and responsibility as something that continues after the lights go out.. Armitage presents the moon as metaphor for both an ancient observer and a symbolic stand-in for ZSL’s work—“keeping and caring” plus research that often happens away from public attention.
The animated presentation. illustrated by Greg King. carries the poem’s words from the zoo outward into the wider natural world.. That expansion is more than aesthetic.. The final movement shifts from night to dawn. and the poem lands on a responsibility message: the moon “hands over the keys of the world and trusts them to us.” In other words. the wonder is not meant to end at the enclosure gate—it becomes an obligation.
ZSL’s leadership describes the anniversary as a reminder of why institutions matter.. Misryoum sees the organisation’s long timeline—science in the early days. public engagement later. and conservation now—as a bridge between discovery and action.. Kathryn England, ZSL’s CEO, argues that ZSL has spent 200 years bringing people closer to wildlife and inspiring protection.. Armitage’s poem, she suggests, captures both the thrill of encounter and the duty that comes with it.
There’s also a practical resonance beneath the literary surface.. Many animals rely on predictable day-night cycles, and zoo operations aim to reduce stress while enabling natural behaviours.. Armitage’s contrast between “night” as refuge and “daylight” as the human-run world implicitly raises a question readers can’t quite un-ask: how often do conservation stories talk about daily disruption at the level of animal experience?. The poem doesn’t provide data. but it points to the human role in shaping conditions—whether through research. habitat thinking. or everyday respect for wildlife.
Beyond sentiment. Misryoum notes a wider trend: more conservation communication now mixes science with storytelling rather than treating them as separate languages.. Armitage’s choice of a playful. kinetic night—complete with images of towers of dens. midnight manicures. and animal dreams—offers a route into the same message that scientific work delivers: ecosystems are fragile. and human choices determine their futures.
As ZSL marks its 200th year, **“The Moon and the Zoo”** functions like a cultural mirror for a conservation agenda. It invites readers to look at what’s usually hidden, then asks them to carry that attention into daylight—when, finally, the keys are in their hands.
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