See the World Through Their Eyes
Written by Zoe Bizicki – Orangutan Foundation
Zoe Bizicki, Communications and Operations Officer at Orangutan Foundation, submitted this year’s World Animal Day theme, ‘See the World Through Their Eyes’. Here, Zoe shares the experiences and reflections that inspired her idea.
On a cloudless day off Little Corn Island, Nicaragua, I’m diving in the warm blue waters of the Caribbean Sea. Below the surface, life seems to pause — a silent tropical paradise interrupted only by the faint, constant crackle of snapping shrimp.
Waves rock me gently from side to side, and I feel part of the ocean floor’s slow dance: sand washing over coral beds, ribbons of seaweed waving like flags. Tropical fish dart around me in their own private choreography — and then the main act arrives: a green sea turtle, gliding into view.
I stay as still as I can, watching this quiet creature nibble at a garden of coral, and I can’t help but feel I already know him. I’ve never seen a sea turtle before, but images of Finding Nemo and aquarium adverts drift in and out of my mind. Somewhere along the way, we decided this animal would be our poster boy — a celebration of life on Earth. Yet we turn a blind eye to his relatives caught as bycatch. There is no single rule for all in this world.
I follow the turtle at a safe distance as it moves through the water like a hawk drifting on the wind — two creatures, on land and at sea, living out the same silent mastery of their element, never to know of one another. I realise how privileged I am to witness this: a perfect adaptation, one of countless niches of life, each species finding its own way to survive.
This undersea moment is a reminder that we live amongst some of the most extraordinary phenomena on Earth. The wonderful diversity of life on Earth led me to create this World Animal Day theme: to ask us all to pause and see the world through their eyes.
As humans, we live in worlds of our own making. I watch people glued to their phones on the commute into the office, quick to speak of the beauty of Our Planet or a dolphin fridge magnet brought back from a friend’s trip to the Bahamas. We appreciate animals in flashes, when it’s convenient — but do we, as a collective, truly care for them? I don’t think we do.
‘See the World Through their Eyes’ is an invitation to reflect on our place in it. AI is powering us through a dark tunnel of unknowns, and climate change looms over all of it. In the face of that, we seem to be running out of hope for instilling compassion and driving real action. But perhaps this is a new way in: I believe that once you’ve witnessed something miraculous in nature, you cannot simply turn your back on it.
It’s a privilege to see astonishing nature first-hand — but then again, haven’t we been witnessing entire worlds through the power of imagination since childhood? Even in cities, small parks and green spaces boast a plethora of life if one slows down enough to notice it.
A year later, back in London, I went on my lunch walk from my office at the Orangutan Foundation’s office to nearby Regent’s Park and found a green feather resting on the grass. The park is usually dappled with the lost property of pigeons and gulls, but this one felt special — a parakeet’s feather, a controversial invasive species, and still a small decoration of colour in a parched summer park.
My work at the Foundation lets me see the world through another species’ eyes every day. My daily walk through the park reminds me of London’s wildlife. Meanwhile, as Communications Officer, I sift through reports, images, and videos from the field to share with our supporters. But every so often, a video stops me in my tracks: a mother orangutan, her gaze lost in the camera as her infant nurses below; a dominant male pausing near camp, watching us as we watch him; a family of proboscis monkeys leaping into the river, focused on finding food on the far bank.
Every day, as we go about our busy lives, animals around the world continue their own secret lives. I sometimes wonder what’s happening in a given moment somewhere else — a birth, a death, a quiet act of survival. These species live differently to us, but they live. We owe it to them to notice. So, this World Animal Day, why not try to do the same —to see the world through their eyes, too.