Life of Pi

Pi describes the danger man poses to the animals in a zoo- the bad things he feeds them, the way he harms, tortures and kills them. One day Pi’s father takes him and Ravi to the big cat house and makes them promise to never touch or in any way go near a tiger. To make sure they understand the full danger, he makes them watch as the tiger kills and eats a goat. This is just the first of many similar lessons he gives to his sons regarding the dangerous animals in the zoo.

Pi explains that the key to the science of zookeeping is to get the animals used to the presence of humans by diminishing their flight distance—the minimum distance at which an animal wants to keep a perceived enemy.

Pi explains that, no matter what, there will always be animals who try to escape from zoos, even though generally animals do not wish for “freedom.” The escape attempts are often because the offending animal’s enclosure is unsuitable, or because something within its enclosure has frightened its Animals are always escaping from something, never to.