Animals at Africa’s oldest zoo ‘too cramped’

Cairo’s facility seeks to vastly improve conditions

Cairo – Boba springs left and right for a Cairo zookeeper feeding him fruit, but the chimp’s exuberance contrasts with the pitiful lack of space and natural habitat in Africa’s oldest zoo.

Under the tall trees in the expansive Giza Zoo in the centre of the Egyptian capital, children throw morsels to several monkeys, trying to elicit a funny reaction. Other children crowd around the pen of Naima, an elephant who extends her trunk from behind the bars for treats.

“We wish the natural environment could be recreated for the animals. It’s not normal for an elephant to live in a tight space and on hard ground,” said Mona Khalil, who heads the Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals.

The confined spaces for the animals was one of the reasons Giza Zoo lost its accreditation with the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums in 2004. It was built in 1891, not long after the inauguration of the Suez Canal.

A metal suspension bridge designed by Gustave Eiffel harks back to an era when Egypt strove for modernity and scientific progress.

The zoo boasts 4 500 animals of 28 species, according to Mohammed Rajai, who heads the government’s central authority for zoos.

One practice that has been criticised is its “photography unit” which hires cameramen to take photos of zoo-goers with animals. They can be photographed holding a vulture or lion cub, among others.

Aside from posing a possible threat to zoo-goers, humans can pass on diseases to the animals. But changes require funds, a tall order at a zoo where employees earn only between R284 and R808 a month. There have been some improvements, however: the zoo has employed a cleaning firm and Khalil said an open area planted with grass has been set aside for lions.

The zoo now plans to start a breeding programme and to sell some of the animals to give the others more space.