“Someone told me, it s all happening at the zoo, I hummed the lyrics to the classic Simon and Garfunkel song as I scoured Morad St. for a parking spot. The jovial soundtrack running through my mind set me up for disappointment as I finally entered the gates of the Cairo Zoo last week.
Kids in tow, I thought it would be a pleasant way to spend a summer morning. All children love animals, right? But not all children, it turns out, can overcome the pungent odors that filtered through the bars of the animals’ cages.
On the positive side, the children visiting the zoo did seem to have fun. Even my daughter’s incessant questions about where the smell was coming from were forgotten as she caught a glimpse of the camel. She couldn’t contain her excitement when the zookeeper handed her a stick skewered with a slice of carrot and allowed her to feed him – the camel, not the zookeeper.
“Mommy, he didn’t brush his teeth, she remarked as the camel chomped away at her offering.
The Cairo Zoo is bereft of any “Don’t Feed the Animals signs. It seems that the zookeepers encourage patrons in order to supplement their meager income.
Zoos worldwide are struggling to raise funds to meet their staggering overheads. The Cairo Zoo is no exception. About 10 million people visit the zoo each year, double the number of New York s Bronx zoo and 12 times the number at Vincennes Park in Paris. On an average day, 30,000 people visit the zoo and up to 100,000 can visit the grounds on a holiday.
Despite a LE 5 entrance fee for adults, and free admittance for children under the age of 5, it was hard to fault the Ministry of Agriculture for being a little lax in the upkeep of its facilities.
It’s also not surprising that the zookeepers, earning minimum wage, lure children to feed animals in hopes of getting a token tip from their parents. Though I’m sure it’s not good for the animals to graze on snacks all day – after all it’s not like they get much exercise in the confines of their cages – it’s a way to earn some extra cash.
“The zoo at Giza is one of the most beautiful in the world, Tour Egypt touted on its website, “and the most densely inhabited by the various animal and plant species.
Today, the zoo feels like a shadow of its former self. Clues of its past glory are evident.
Khedive Ismail (1863-1879) was given credit as the first to think of opening a zoo on the occasion of the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1869, but tight timings meant that he had to postpone his ambitious plans. It wasn’t until Wilfred E. Jennings-Bramly was offered the job of creating a new zoological garden at Giza that things started to fall into place.
Major Jennings-Bramly, who had come out to Egypt to serve as private secretary to Khedive Tawfik, told John Briton shortly before his death what he remembered concerning his work in founding the Cairo Zoo. Briton chronicled the birth of the zoo in his article “The Zoo Story for Aramco World in 1970.
“The site chosen for the zoo was the garden of an old palace of Ismail Pasha s, and Jennings-Bramly immediately proposed to divide the gardens into two large enclosures, bordered by high railings, with a path down the center. In one enclosure carnivorous animals could roam at will, and in the other the herbivorous, wrote Briton. “Had the plan worked it would have anticipated London s Whipsnade Zoo plan by years, but it had to be shelved when furious Egyptians accused him of ‘caging’ them, while allowing the animals to run free.
On March 1,1891, the Zoo at Giza was opened for the public. One of the first wild animals to arrive was a lion from the Sudan. “Every time [the keeper] saw him the lion would come to the bars to be petted and scratched and the young man obliged, Jennings-Bramly recalled. “The lion fully repaid these kindnesses when the keeper was called up for his military service. The lion refused to eat and the keeper was promptly exempted from service and returned to the zoo.
Today the zoo’s King of the Jungle lies in a small cage behind iron bars. His majestic qualities have diminished as he ignores the popcorn and nuts that are tossed towards him by the crowds. The vendors, aware of the lion’s attraction, have chosen a spot not quite 3 feet away to set up their stand from which blaring music creates a cacophony that drowns out the honking of the cars outside the gates.
“Another early favorite, Briton related another anecdote, “was a Russian wolf which seemed large and fierce, but was in actual fact quite tame. The wolf was very useful when Jennings-Bramly wished to clear the garden. He simply let the wolf out of his cage and let him run through the gardens. He ‘cleared the people out in no time,’ Major Jennings-Bramly chuckled.
Major Jennings-Bramly eventually turned over the direction of the zoo to a professional zoologist, Major Stanley Flower. Though he was still green around the ears at the age of 20, it was Flower that deserves credit for establishing its reputation as one of the world’s most famous zoos. He chose and preserved a variety of foreign animals, reptiles and birds through creating a unique setting for them to be displayed. Some of the animals at the zoo today are descendants of Flower’s first tenants.
The animals are still at the heart of the zoo today. However, the Zoo’s Director, Nasser Kamel, is still fighting an uphill battle to care for the animals.
In February of last year, the zoo was under attack from bird flu. According to press reports, the Health Ministry ordered the closure of the zoo after several birds died. The zoo s artificial lake was considered a breeding ground for the virus after 82 birds were found dead by the lake from avian flu. Six of them, including a duck, turkey and Chinese geese all carried the H5N1 strain. Another 563 birds who paddled in the lake were slaughtered and the government drained the water body.
While the zoo has overcome the threat, and visitors have flocked back in great numbers, they are never want for drama. Earlier this summer a 400-kilogram Moroccan female camel was “murdered. The animal was slaughtered according to Islamic sharia. The carcass was left behind, but six kilograms worth of meat and the liver were missing. It’s not hard to deduce the motive behind the crime.
The Cairo Zoo is still a great way to spend the morning with the family. The primates are still a main attraction, the monkeys’ antics providing endless slapstick entertainment. The elephant looked forlorn, chained by its foot to the bars of the cage so that the pressing crowds could feed it peanuts. The sea lion loved the attention it was getting from the crowds and seemingly barked and clapped with pleasure.
A quick look around at the parents seated under the towering trees, watching their children run from animal cage to animal cage, picking up flowers and twigs to feed them. Impromptu soccer games played out in the lanes. Mothers served plates of macaroni from large aluminum pots and called to their children to have lunch. In a city that’s generally family-unfriendly, it was a wonderful scene to behold.
While there’s work to be done by the zoo’s director and much needed support from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Cairo landmark may never return to its former glory. But it’s a legacy that deserves to be held on to by tooth and nail.
