Kinshasa Zoo, Once Pride of Africa, Could Disappear
12/9/97
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Headline: Kinshasa Zoo, Once Pride of Africa, Could Disappear
Source: Agence France-Presse
Date: 12/9/97
KINSHASA, Dec 9 (AFP) - Kinshasa zoo, once upheld as a model for
others in Africa, is now a collection of unkempt cages, poorly fed
animals and unpaid keepers, and could disappear altogether without
outside aid.
Created in 1933 by the Belgian colonial administration, the zoo
occupies a vast area of land in the middle of a man-made forest in
the center of the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the
former Zaire.
It long served as a transit zone for animals destined for export
to Belgium, but after independence in 1960 the zoo was put under the
control of the country's new authorities.
Its collection includes primates, especially monkeys and
chimpanzees, three leopards, two of which were seized from a US
national trying to illegally smuggle them out of the country,
antelopes, wild birds and a range of reptiles including pythons,
crocodiles and the like. All come from the country's forests or the
Congo River basin.
"The zoo is no longer beautiful. We have financial and material
difficulties that seriously limit our activities and dangerously
threaten the future of the zoo," said zoo director Mosubao Nzinza.
The animals' cages and dens have not been kept up since the
Belgians left and the rooftops on some are in danger of caving in.
Some of the reptile caves are full of cracks.
The situation deteriorated further as the country was caught up
in the uprising by a rebel alliance led by now President Laurent
Kabila. The rebels seized the capital in Kinshasa in May and toppled
dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was accused of saddling the country
with debts, misrule, corruption and a failure to move towards
democracy.
"We can no longer house the animals in such conditions that have
no safety guarantees either for the species or the visitors," said
Nzinza.
One zoo worker was recently bitten by a famished chimpanzee
ready to grab at anything that looked like food.
Not far from the zoo director's office, three chimpanzees
crowded into a barbed wire cage, their faces lined from hunger and
years of captivity. They are among the lucky ones, fed regularly if
minimally by visitors who carry them bread and fruit.
An association called The Animals' Friends created by a Belgian
national goes around each day collecting leftover food from the
capital's big hotels so the zoo animals have at least something to
eat. But "this food is not at all adapted to the animals' needs,"
said the zoo director.
Inside the zoo, the staff is raising chickens, ducks and has set
up a pond to raise tilapias, a tasty much-prized fish native to the
great lakes of Africa, to feed the primates and reptiles.
"All this is insufficient and does not allow us to fill in the
food shortages for the animals," said Nzinza.
Two lions have already died at the zoo from lack of food and
proper veterinary care, said Christine-Monique Kahindo, the zoo's
scientific and zoological director.
Nzinza has estimated that to function normally the zoo, which
has 30 employees, needs more than 15,000 dollars per month.
"We are short of money. Our intake generated from visits, about
30 dollars a day, is far from sufficient," he said, stressing that
the only hope now was international aid.
"We hope that after the meeting of the 'Friends of Congo' in
Brussels, the donors will not hesitate to fly to our rescue," he
said.
The Friends of Congo, 26 countries and international
organizations, held a donor conference in Brussels last week at the
initiative of the World Bank at Kinshasa's request.
They agreed to create a support fund for the DRC's economy
linked to Kinshasa's "progress" on human rights and democracy.