19 February 2006

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While I am not in favor of keeping animals in cages, I recognize the need of zoo's and even the necessity of them these days in the face of the relentless destruction by humans of species and their habitats, and the role that some of them play in keeping many species from extinction. One can just think of the breeding programs many zoo's have. An example is that of the giant Panda amongst others. The main reason I have made a page on the zoo is firstly, I had a bit of time to spare to visit the zoo again after quite some years, and secondly to give visitors to Johannesburg who have a few hours to kill and want to get out to some place close by, some information. The zoo is situated just north of the city center in part of the northern suburbs. Its an old zoo, so you have lots of big trees and I must say its been expanded quite a bit since I last visited it. Many people have picnics there as well, and its a great place to see some greenery without having to travel far.

The Chimp enclosure.

A Bongo

A Red River Hog from Madagascar.

Here is something interesting. A wetland area that cleans water. Experiments showed that the area was able to clean water that had an Ecoli level of 75000 parts coming in and by the time it left was right down to zero. From here the water flows into Zoo lake. This demonstrates the importance of preserving wetlands and the role that they play in cleaning water.

Here's real funny one!

They have a couple of large walk in Averies.

The Lion enclosure.

The Johannesburg skyline with the Johannesburg hospital in the background. (bring your own linen if you are planing on moving in there for awhile!)

Some of the parkland in the zoo.

Wild dogs. I must say I prefer to see them in the wild!