Tygerburg Zoo - Cape Towns Lost attraction?

I'm sure we would all prefer to see animals in their natural habit. However the reality is that Zoo's offer an amazing educational experience, with large amounts of species in a relatively small area, with very assessable viewing. Of late, Zoo's have also become essential as part of much needed breeding programs for endangered species.

In our travels we have visited several first class Zoos including Joburg Zoo, London Zoo, Isle of Wight Zoo, The outstanding Loro Parque, and Longleat (zoo and safari park) I would love to say our trip to the Western Capes ONLY zoo featured in this list but I'm saddened to say it definitely didn't. The reason for this has me stumped. Why in the beautiful city of Cape Town don't we have a zoo that is as spectacular as our aquarium?

Maybe I'm just naive on the subject, but on reading the little pamphlet we received at the gate, I noticed that it's privately owned and receives no assistance from the Provincial Government, Municipality or Western Cape Tourism. Is this right? I also noticed the person who I assume was the owner Mr. John Spence, appears to have passed away in January 2010.Could this explain the state of the zoo?

It's not that the zoo has nothing to offer. In fact quite the contrary. There is an awesome selection of animals 230 species according to their leaflet.  My son and I were particularly delighted with the white lion pair. The animals are also not in a bad condition, other the an enormous crane with  a damaged wing (which I'm pretty sure it did itself) all the animals we saw were lovingly cared for and in great condition.

However the Zoo is badly let down by several aspects. The enclosures are very dated and with only very basic facilities for the inhabitants. The wire on most of the cages was rusted and old, the walkways are mainly dirt (very dusty) and the signage was scruffy and "tired" looking. In fact that pretty much sums up the feel of the Zoo ... There is also some obvious "gaps" in the animal assortment, for instance I couldn't find any Rhino, Leopard, or Giraffe Elephant etc etc The "picnic" area has built in braais (just a thought but surely open fires cant be a good idea so close to the animals?!)  and very old metal umbrellas dotted across a rather dusty area, not somewhere I would want to picnic. The tearoom is probably the worst part, it is very very basic, with grubby plastic table cloths equally grubby staff and hardly any stock. The curio shop is  hopelessly understocked, the dusty stock that what was on the shelves looked like something you'd find in a charity shop. 

You can definitely see someone has put their heart and soul into the place, but somehow it just wasn't enough, and this is what depressed me. I have no idea how much it costs to run a Zoo on a daily basis, but my guess is the 40 odd cars that were in the carpark on Sunday probably only just covered the running cost for that day. At R60 an adult and R40 a child, it should of been swamped !

I've made a conscious decision to find out more about this situation. I'll be contacting the Zoo's owner personally to find out first hand what's gone wrong here. I'm also planning to chat to the relevant authorities to find out why this potential gem is not receiving any funding. If any of my readers can shed some light on the situation, please comment on the blog. "Any information is very welcome" Watch this space for more info.

         In the mean time - Come on Cape Town support our Zoo, after all it's the only one we have!!!!!