Key focus areas

It has four core focus areas:

Education

The zoo’s core message, “looking after the environment”, is spread through awareness programmes, edutainment, and smell, hear, touch and feel programmes.

It is also the epicentre for the living sciences, with teachers and parents encouraged to bring pupils and children to the zoo to give life to environmental subjects.

Conservation

It works with a number of partners, from local, provincial, national and regional conservation authorities to private landowners and NGOs:

• Waza, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums;
• Isis, the International Species Information System;
• Paazab, the African Association of Zoos and Aquariums;
• The Gauteng Association of Zoos;
• The Rosebank Tourism Authority;
• Proudly South African;
• The Marketing Federation of South Africa; and
• The Gauteng department of education.

Research

Research is ongoing and is aimed at stabilising wildlife, achieved through biological conservation, animal diseases information and medical care given to animals. The zoo contributes to study in three main ways – its own research, academic research and partnership research.

Recreation

Accessible and affordable, the zoo brings the wild world right to the doorstep of urban dwellers, providing a place of relaxation in a clean, green environment.