Johannesburg Zoo

The Johannesburg Zoo was established in 1904 and encompasses 54 hectares of beautiful landscaped gardens and over 2070 animals and 365 different species.

The last time I had been to the Zoo was in 1978 on a family outing to Johannesburg when we lived in Vanderbijlpark. This was Ruth's first time at the Zoo. The Zoo is only about 3 blocks from where we live, so we thought it was about time we went for a visit.We arrived at about midday on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. The carpark was packed and the streets outside the Zoo were full of cars. Still a very popular destination for Joburgers...The Cheetah enclosure was the first destination. Unfortunately the male was separated from the females as they only put them together during the mating season. the Cheetah above is one of the females.The Wild Dogs were quite cute too, but I wouldn't trust them with a 3 year old....

Above is a stunning example of South Africa's national bird....the Blue Crane.
The The South African National Museum of Military History borders the Zoo and the above monument is to the Anglo Boer War Memorial. I see this monument every afternoon on my drive home from work.
The above statue is a memorial for "Max the Gorilla". In 1997, an escaping burglar jumped over the Zoo wall and into the Gorilla enclosure. The burglar was promptly attacked by Max. Max was shot twice by the burglar and was taken to Millpark hospital where he was successfully operated on to remove the bullets. The burglar in turn was shot and arrested by the police.

I remember it well. The newspapers had a field day, as at the time, crime in Joburg was at its peak and everyone was applauding Max for doing a better job than the local police in fighting crime.