City manager Mavela Dlamini surveys the scene Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg

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The pride of the Johannesburg Zoo: one of the white lions Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg

Joburg Zoo has a farm Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg

City officials go on safari to Parys Zoo Farm Headed by the mayor, a group of City officials spent the day in the Free State where they inspected Johannesburg Zoo's new Parys Zoo Farm. May 31, 2007 By Lesego Madumo THE Johannesburg Zoo has colonised part of a national heritage site in the Free State, where it has established the Parys Zoo Farm as a retreat from the urban jungle for its highly endangered species. About 120 kilometres south of Joburg, the farm hosted a delegation from the City on Tuesday, 29 May. The City officials were on safari to inspect the new 700ha farm. Included in the party were Executive Mayor Amos Masondo, City manager Mavela Dlamini, chief whip Bafana Sithole, Speaker Nkele Ntingane and the members of the mayoral committee for health, community development and environment. The zoo is used to house animals that are not comfortable living in enclosed zoo camps, and for breeding. As such, it is an important facility for the Johannesburg Zoo. The City team learn more about the World Heritage site that is Vredefort Dome Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg Stress rest "A lot of animals are stressed in the zoo. We use the farm to breed endangered animals and to raise their population. Ultimately, [we want] to be able to undertake conservation projects [and, in future,] be able to re-release these animals back into the wild," explained Jenny Gray, the zoo's chief executive officer. The gravel road to the farm takes a somewhat tortuous route, but one's discomfort is soon rewarded with the beautiful views of plateaus and buttes. Indigenous flora lines the drive, which cuts through rich farmlands populated by cows, wild animals, windmills and a bush camp. The skies were clear for the officials' visit, with not a cloud in sight - just perfect for a drive to the top of the hills - where they learned a bit about the area's history. According to Unesco's World Heritage website, about 2 000 million years ago a massive meteorite crashed into the earth. The resulting crater - with a radius of 190 kilometres - is the largest and oldest such site in the world. The Vredefort Dome was made a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2005. Unesco is the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. The farm is just a few kilometres from the old town of Vredefort. Lunchtime The next stop was the nyala camp, where the visitors watched as the farm manager, Danie van der Walt, fed the antelope. Nyala belong to the same family as kudu and bongo. They are antelopes with spiral horns and brown and white stripes on their backs. From there it was on to the crane camp, where two wattled cranes and two blue cranes, the national bird, are kept. With the charismatic Dlamini cracking jokes, the group listened and watched attentively while Gray gave more details about the birds. The Joburg Zoo had eight wattled cranes, of which five were being costume reared; when they were ready, they would be taken to the farm, she said. Wattled cranes, which are facing extinction, are among the five most critically endangered bird species in the country. Gray explained that the zoo had a chick camp for the birds, where they were costume reared, that belonged to the kwaZulu-Natal government. Abandoned eggs were collected from the wild by a fieldworker and transported to the Johannesburg zoo. The final stop before lunch was to see the kings of the camp - the white lions. Van der Walt said that the Joburg zoo was the first in the world to breed white lions, "of which some are based here". A highlight of the day was watching the huge beasts enjoy their meal of horsemeat. "Some of the lions are seven and 19 years old - the older one are on pension," he joked. He also explained that the lions ate four times a week, which was "good for their digestive system. Usually in the wild they don't eat everyday, so we try to treat them like other wild lions." Breeding programmes Before the present zoo farm, the zoo used an area in the far southeast of the city, the Rietvlei Zoo Farm. "It was decided to develop and sell the land and we needed an alternative for the farm. That is when we decided to buy the farm down here in Parys," Gray said, adding that having a farm meant that the zoo could carry out projects that were not possible in an urban environment. Professor Frans Waanders discusses the various projects with Joburg Zoo CEO Jenny Gray and Executive Mayor Amos Masondo Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg "A lot of our very endangered species are quite shy and are not happy in the zoo. They won't be able to breed them at the zoo, so it's important to have another facility to help us to deal with these shy and most endangered species." In addition, the zoo farm offered the opportunity to work with academics and conservationists, "who will help us [to] rehabilitate the farm to its original form". Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za