Maintaining a zoo is not only a balancing act, it contributes importantly to the world we live in. There’s a science factor to it too, writes Sarah Wild of the Mail and Guardian. It informs the activities of the zoo, from what the animals eat to the habitats designed for them.
It sounds like a breakfast buffet for a sultan: four apples, four pears, a punnet of strawberries, bananas. These are some of the ingredients on the recipe list for the exotic South American fish at the Johannesburg Zoo.
According to Tshepang Makganye, acting head of the zoo, this diet has been specifically formulated to meet the fish’s nutritional requirements. “A zoo is a technical environment – anything and everything you do needs science,” he says, sitting in his wood-panelled office in the zoo’s admin building. Outside the window, a flamboyance of flamingos plays in a water hole.
* This article is reused with permission from the Mail & Guardian.