The Jo'burg Zoo!

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We were looking for something local and out-of-doors to do that we hadn’t done before, so we made a trip to the Jo’burg Zoo. It is a lovely zoo; to me very similar to some other big-city zoos I had been to before, with many of the same animals, some very nice newly renovated facilities, and some old facilities in need of replacement. The day we were there, a radio station was hosting a concert of local artists, and we heard some beautiful voices, including that of a young woman named Siphokazi who had recently released a new CD.

The zoo is large, and often people come early to walk the trails, which are nicely laid out. Some of the structures are quite beautiful, with painting and inlaid mosaic.

An animal we hadn’t seen before: the red river bushpig, which is known to carry diseases asymptomatically that can wipe out domestic hog populations. About the size of a javelina, it is very red with black and white markings and has white tufts of hair on its ears and tail. We saw some very striking red flamingos that we couldn’t get a good picture of because of the wire. We thought the bird sanctuary was the walk-through kind, but it turned out to be the walk-around kind, with lots of vegetation - good for the birds, bad for us viewers.

One interesting note: isn’t it odd that a major African zoo got its gorilla from Germany? There were other animals from German zoos, as well. Guess that is a step in the right direction toward preserving the wild populations. It seems that many of the animals that are attractive at zoos are those from other places - here, this is Africa, so this zoo has a grizzly bear from North America, birds from South America, etc. in addition to African animals in semi-natural habitats.

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Photos

kids and meerkats
A row of children pops up to watch the meerkats, which were popping up to watch back until we took the picture!