January 12, 2005
By Sheree Russouw
JENNY GRAY is the first to admit she is not an animal expert. Her first love, says the Chief Executive of the Johannesburg Zoo, is numbers.
And even though it has been just a year since Gray started her new job, the numbers at the zoo are already adding up. Last year it made its first profit in years, had its first unqualified audit and visitor numbers grew by 7%.
Gray, a civil engineer by trade, holds an MSc in transportation engineering and previously led First National Bank's electronic banking division.
While her job as the ultimate guardian of the zoo's 2 000 creatures may be somewhat removed from the corporate world, zoo staff speak highly of her fierce determination to transform the zoo - and its accounting books.
Although numbers are her passion, animals are too, evidenced by the array of animal encyclopedias tucked between her wealth of financial tomes. The animal books, she says, help teach her about new species every day.
"I've always loved animals. Who doesn't?" says Gray. "But I'm learning more about different kinds of animals all the time. And if there's something I don't know about an animal, there are 50 experts here at the zoo who do know. But I keep on appreciating the animal side of my job with sheer joy."
And she probably has the best view of animals in Johannesburg. From her office window, she gets to watch flamingos dance in their mini-river, alongside water buffaloes, or gaze at the expansive green lawns of the leafy zoo.
"This is so cool. When I first came here for my interview I wondered how anyone could work here, with all the noise the animals made. But now I love their sounds ... I know how lucky I am to work in such a beautiful and peaceful environment. I've really loved my first year at the zoo. It's been such a fantastic experience."
And the experience is one Gray and her team at the zoo are constantly altering, bit by bit.
The Johannesburg City Council pumps about R20 million a year into the zoo, but Gray is passionate about the zoo earning on its own revenue, although she doubts it will ever be able to run entirely without securing government funding.
"The subsidy from the Council may continue to diminish, so rather than just keep chugging along, we must grow faster," says Gray.
And the growth has happened at a phenomenal pace, from fixing the zoo's storm water drains and recycling its waste, to unveiling a new R2 million ape enclosure last year.
More and more corporations are hosting functions at the zoo, which on a single day can draw in an extra 6 000 visitors. "Who would have imagined that?" she says excitedly.
"A year ago we outsourced our venues - now we have brought it back in-house and it has created an income for us. We've increased the number of venues that we hire out and they are really cooking," says Gray.
More companies are also adopting animals or donating funds to the zoo to build enclosures. But Gray says that relationship often ends once the money is in the bank.
"We are doing really well with corporate social investment initiatives but we would like to build partnerships with these companies, instead of them always disappearing after they give us the money. They could help fund breeding programmes or their staff could come help us clean the animal enclosures."
She says zoos across the world are faced with similar problems: funding constraints, tough competition with other entertainment venues and even "competing with Aids orphans" for a share of corporate social investment revenue.
The zoo, too, has raised a "couple of million" in animal sales to reputable game farms and zoos across the world. "We sold three of our rare white lion cubs for R150 000 each to a zoo in Australia this year. It makes sense for us to get our optimal numbers of animals, if the zoo has too many bokkies, for example.
And her long-term vision for the zoo is already in the making. Plans are afoot to turn the zoo into adventure-themed zones, or what Gray calls an "immersion adventure".
"We've found that the zoo experience is a little old and tired and not what we want. When people come here they want an experience that is more than just walking in a zoo in Johannesburg. Some of the enclosures are fantastic, but others are diabolical."
While the development plan could take 20 years to become a reality, work has already started on the dream. "We want visitors to feel like they are turn-of-the-century explorers who have stepped out of Johannesburg into the wild."
The makeover includes transforming the zoo into several zones, drawing on themes that depict the ancient Spice Route, with model ships following the Indian Ocean Rim, and other themes that will see explorers navigating the Amazon Jungle or the icy Polar Zone.
Modelled on the lush foliage of the Congo, the "Heart of Africa" is envisioned as a place where visitors can explore a central African jungle, complete with apes and chimpanzees living in towering ruins. This zone is already well on its way to completion.
Gray says the Southern Safari will not only showcase South Africa's famous animals, such as elephants, lions and giraffes, but its smaller creatures like hedgehogs too. This will showcase South Africa's rich biodiversity and give visitors the chance to see creatures like porcupines that they would likely miss on a game drive at the Kruger National Park.
Further plans include a new external restaurant zone, a revamped African-inspired farmyard for children, a sky train and a towering 50-metre lookout tower for visitors to fully appreciate the enormity of the zoo and its surrounds.
Considering that the zoo's target market is the average 10-year-old, the emphasis is "fun and excitement. Children will in the future have the chance to become amateur forensic investigators in one zoo feature, modelled on the TV programme CSI.
"The children will become crime scene investigators - they'll have their own special kits and collect evidence. We would tell them that an animal has mauled a person at the zoo and they would have to find out from the footprints and animal imprints what kind of animal did it. Or we could say that an animal was stolen and they would have to find out where it has gone."
There are also plans to build an auditorium where members of the public can watch animal operations, or even autopsies. "We want children to come to the zoo because it's cool and fun. We have a long-term vision and we will do all these things with time, to make the zoo experience more exciting.
The makeover is desperately needed because the zoo had a "bad rap" in the past, says Gray. "In the past, if you told people to come to the zoo because it was fantastic, they would say: 'Ja, ja, we've been there. Nothing has changed.' I remember coming here as a child and as an adult and thinking how little had changed.
"But people are aware of the changes we're making, as opposed to the zoo being this rundown, crappy place. We are getting the basics right and changing rapidly. If you come here every six months, you'll see how things are improving all the time."
As Gray walks around the zoo, she visits her favourite "neighbours": the red river hogs and rare bongos. "Every day I take a walk around the zoo, just to see the progress we are making. I walk here a lot to remember why I'm doing this job," she says.
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