White oryx at the Johannesburg Zoo |
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| Date opened | 1904[1] |
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| Location | Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Land area | 81 ha (200 acres)[2] |
| Number of animals | 2,000[2] |
| Number of species | 320[2] |
| Memberships | WAZA[3] |
| Website | www.jhbzoo.org.za |
The Johannesburg Zoo is a 81-hectare (200-acre) zoo in Johannesburg, South Africa. Established in 1904, it has traditionally been owned and operated by the City of Johannesburg. However, it has recently been turned into a corporation and registered as a Section 21 non-profit organisation.
The zoo is dedicated to the accommodation, enrichment, husbandry, and medical care of wild animals, and houses about 2000 individuals of 320 species.
Tours and excursions around the zoo are offered under the auspices of the zoo's education department.
It is one of the few places in the world with white lions (a genetic mutation of African lions), and has had considerable success in their breeding; these are more sought after than tawny lions by other zoos. The Johannesburg Zoo is also the only zoo in South Africa to have successfully bred Siberian Tigers, the largest cats in the world. "Twist" the male Siberian, weighs 320 kg, and is the father of all the Siberian Tigers to be found in South Africa. Max the gorilla was probably the Zoo's best known resident. [4]
Due to requirements in the Deed of Gift under which the land for the Johannesburg Zoo and the neighboring Zoo Lake was acquired, the zoo, and neighboring park, is one of very few public areas that was never segregated during Apartheid in South Africa.[5]
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Johannesburg_Zoo Johannesburg Zoo] at Wikimedia Commons
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