After several delays, the Giza Zoo eventually opened to the public in 1891, a pet project of Khedive Ismail. Very highly regarded in its day, the Giza Zoo has not yet seen the renovations and changes in attitude of most other zoos established in that era. A brief youtube search will bring up images of zoo visitors in cages with lions, tigers, hippos, hyenas, crocodiles and elephants – just a series of experiences which add to the normal zoo visit. Though this kind of activity is widespread in Egyptian zoos, I’ve never seen it to the same degree as in Cairo. I went to Cairo for a day-trip this summer, and visited the zoo rapidly in about two hours, managing to see most of the collection. Just the day before my trip, there was an article in the newspaper about how the zoo was now totally empty, had lost most of their animals, and attempts were being made to buy the land from the government to use for building flats. As it takes up a large amount of space on prime land beside the Nile between several important buildings, this has long been a discussion point. The zoo has been made infamous over recent years by international media reporting various events; one of which being the cull of thousands of birds in 2006 as a precaution against bird flu – I was therefore not too hopeful about the variety of life in the zoo. It turned out that I had nothing to worry about, though not as crowded as it would otherwise have been, the self-titled ‘most crowded zoo in the world’ (or something to that effect, to do with highest animal density), still contained many wild animals. Recent attempts at improving conditions at the zoo include getting advice from a ZSL specialist, hiring a full-time vet and joining ISIS. ISIS listings turned out to be pretty accurate for this zoo; apart from animals I had not seen and couldn’t account for, numbers of animals were well documented (I’ve forgotten most of the exceptions I had noticed). Anyway, we went to the zoo. After entering, we were greeted by a series of near-empty pools with working fountains, containing pelicans, white storks and wild egrets. After weaving through these and several peafowl enclosures, we got to the lion house, a ludicrously small building with tiny cages (each indoor cage was connected to an outdoor one of a similar size – the doors were all closed when I went.) The lion house lacked tigers, only containing some lions and a pair of leopards in a small cage. Here, you would get pleas from photographers to go with them and have your photo taken with ‘Simba’, a young lion cub kept off-show. Round the corner are a series of large pools with small islands which are home to several groups of hippo. Not great enclosures, but I’ve seen worse, even in the UK. An island over-populated by swan geese was next to Eiffel’s suspension bridge, and nearby was one of the elephant houses – holding a single female African elephant (the usual story; chained to the ground, fed by crowds etc.) What a pity. Scattered around the zoo are many enclosures needlessly dedicated to different 'filler' species; peafowl, ostriches, gazelles and Barbary sheep being the most prominent, but I was pleased to see several scimitar-horned oryx enclosures too. After passing a couple of these paddocks, you get to the monkey area. Not much remarkable here, just various baboon and guenon species as well as some grivets, patas and capuchins all in ridiculous cages: one of the most disgraceful things about the zoo was the disgraceful conditions for primates and carnivores. Having said this, the hamadryas baboon enclosure on the other side of the zoo was not bad, and they had built a very large enclosure for a grivet family; it’s just a real disappointment that they haven’t yet done this more. Next along is a terrace of overcrowded bear cages for Asiatic and American Black Bears. Apparently sponsored by an air conditioning company, the bears were kept cool with fountains and temperatures weren’t too high. This is where I remember the polar bear being kept many years ago. Again, there was public feeding. More ostrich, peacock, gazelle (and a zebra) greeted us before reaching the chimpanzee house. No chimps were in the outdoor cages when we visited, and the house was closed. We could see agitated chimps running around inside though, and they really didn’t have very much space. Next was the baboon enclosure; not bad, but nothing outstanding. Not as overcrowded as I’d have expected it to be. A small section off to one side was home to some ponies, horses and a pair of female Asian Elephants; admission required an extra fee, so we didn’t go in, but could clearly see the elephants’ miserable paddock – these elephants roam a number of square metres rather than the acres that we like to talk about in zoos elsewhere. Walking round past several aviaries for small birds (namely budgies and finches, quite nice because they were not as crowded as they used to be), a pair of large aviaries with grey herons and saddle-bill storks are visible. I think it’s around here that you can walk away from the main area to visit enclosures for ‘Indian deer’ as well as the notorious dog house, but unfortunately we didn’t have time to do so. Some Patagonian sealions being fed in an enclosure containing a large pool was an interesting sight. After walking past the sealions, some gazelles, a pair of Nubian Ibex and various antelopes, we go to the hyena house. Forget visitor safety; we were allowed to wander around with cages on either side – only widely spaced bars separating us from the striped and spotted hyenas (and a cageful of Egyptian jackals at the back). I worried a bit for the children trying to reach out and stroke the hyenas, but just gave up and tried to admire the animals. On walking past a large aviary holding several falcons, and many large paddocks holding solitary gemsbok; we finally got to the reptile house. Again, a separate fee was required. Some nice paddocks for giant tortoises and some small alligator pools were dotted around the exterior; inside were many large, dirty tanks built into the walls with some vivaria in the centre of the room (some looking like little more than cheap incubators). Cobras, tortoises, small snakes, huge pythons, plagues of terrapins, a pair of chameleons, a soft-shelled turtle and crocodiles of various sizes are all on show here, as well as a random selection of several indigenous lizard species. After a few more antelope paddocks and a very lush flamingo enclosure, we reached the cat house. Because it was quite late in the day, all animals were locked in for the night except the Fennec Foxes, which were being cleaned out. I was let into the house and got really close looks at a Jungle Cat, Egyptian Mongooses, some sleepy domestic cats and yet more Egyptian Jackals. It was almost closing time, so we made our way past several interesting aviaries back to the main entrance. In my eyes, it would be an enormous shame to lose this historic zoo; with work, it can really be something spectacular – mature trees, historical buildings and an impressive collection are already present and ready to be improved.
I've just posted photos in the gallery from my visit to Giza zoo, sorry about the poor quality - they were all taken on my mobile phone.
Looking at the photos the exhibits/cages look comparable to Kuwait Zoo, although in some cases worse. Definitely a lot of work needed. And the photos look fine. Hix
I looked at this thread after the photo of the polar bear came up on the home page, so I went to the gallery to have a look at the (perfectly okay) photos and then came to this thread, so sorry it's so long after you posted. I thought the lion house picture was probably most shocking, given the size of the lion compared to her cage, the others were pretty much what I would have expected, I suppose. My question, though, is were the bears, cats and dogs in these old fashioned, small, bare enclosures exhibiting high levels of stereotypical behaviour. You haven't mentioned it and it may be that they were too hot to be doing anything much. Given perceived wisdom, I would have thought there would have been lots of pacing and head rocking etc but I have a feeling you will say this was not the case.
If ever a zoo needed to be closed report today from the BBC BBC News - Cairo zoo puts lions on human birth control pill
@Lee: Thanks for posting that, a very interesting clip. I can't understand why the zoo would be so proud of this new treatment, or why the vet would so happily promote it to an intenational news team. However, I am pleased that they've realised and admitted the need to cut down on breeding the lions - as the report also mentions, lion cubs are among the main attractions for visitors, and the zoo makes a lot of money using them as props for photos. For this reason, they almost always have very young lions at hand for the public to play with, but once they grow up, they have little space to keep them. I'm impressed that they've almost made it sound like popping out lion cubs has been a necessity. @Pacu: Sorry for taking so long to reply. As you assumed, it was so hot that most of the animals weren't doing much. Keepers were standing near many of the popular animal cages should a visitor want to feed them, so those being fed frequently were begging a lot (hippos, elephants, lions, baboons) and those with some sort of cooling system (e.g. pool or waterfall for the bears) were pacing quite a lot. Animals were otherwise behaving relatively normally or sleeping. I clearly remember a group of jackals and some mongoose pacing as well, but I don't think I saw any head-rocking on this visit.
I suspect as the zoo is under serious scrutiny from international authorities and WAZA. Alas, there is a lot to be desired re. Giza Zoo and its management. Quite a bit is down to the fact they use it as a cash cow ... and not invest monies properly into animal management and welfare. That would actually seriously educate the general public - a definite need in the Middle East -.
The Giza Zoo needs a lot of revamping. Apparently, they are government-funded but also government controlled. If possible, the Zoo should try to break this bond, much like the Library of Alexandria has. This would encourage Egyptians to visit who otherwise wouldn’t because of the current conflict. Second, they need new staff. A new director, one with experience and a good reputation, and a new (or newly trained) staff that abides by protocols. Thirdly, the zoo needs design. A favorite personal project of mine is redesigning the zoo, carefully integrating the historic aspects of the zoo, the skyline background, and the desert climate into a masterplan that focuses on Egypt’s wildlife, from the predynastic period to present. (An immediate step towards this goal would be to place their two elephants in sanctuaries, return the orangutans to Al-Ain, and begin to find new homes for the majority of their 50 lions.) Fourth, the zoo needs purpose. In a land where national parks are severely underfunded and animal welfare is largely ignored, the Giza Zoo can do great good. It currently houses one of, if not the last, population of Egyptian Barbary Sheep, plus a pack of Egyptian Jackals, herds of Scimitar-horned Oryx, Addax, and Dorcas Gazelle, and a plethora of other native, endangered/extirpated animals. The Zoo should establish reintroduction programs and breeding programs for these animals Then, the zoo can once again be looked on, in its full glory, as it was in 1891.
I like how optimistic your post is, but in places it's much more difficult and impractical to implement your ideas than you might expect. Giza Zoo is one of Cairo's last green spaces which is easily accessible to thousands of poorer residents. You're right that it is government-owned and government-run, and although this has generally been a hindrance, it is important to note that there have been many offers from property developers to buy large tracts of land from the zoo (which would be valuable, lush real estate less than 200 metres from the Nile) - and that so far these offers have been fended off. I think if the zoo had been privatised, it's likely that the large gardens between exhibits which people enjoy visiting may have been sacrificed. Biblioteca Alexandrina (Alexandria Library) is a different situation for many reasons; partly because from its very beginnings it wasn't solely a government project. Alexandria Zoo, however, has been privatised (formerly only a government venture). Not a great deal seems to have changed - but I do agree that there is greater scope for improvement at Giza if the zoo is privatised. I don't think the fact that Giza Zoo is government-run affects attendance figures, and morally sound senior staff would be great. I'm not sure which sanctuaries you'd consider for the elephants, or where you'd think of housing the lions, but this is generally a much bigger issue than you might expect. Also, in their current mindsets, Egyptian zoos thrive on photo opportunities granted by (baby) animals - so there's no real reason for them to want to get rid of lions and elephants, which are both big draws. I completely agree that it would be nice to make use of these groups of rare & endangered animals, and integrate them into a registered and credible breeding programme. But it is important to ensure pure bloodlines, which I'm not sure these groups reliably have.
