By Nangamso Mabindla

East London's Queen's Park Zoo, the only zoo in the Eastern Cape, is home to about 250 animals, with the most popular being lions and chimpanzees.

"The main attraction at the moment is the new white lion cub, Ina," says Nico Roux, the chief of zoological services. "The public just adores her."

Situated in five hectares of parklands, Queen's Park Zoo has a long tradition of caring for endangered and wild animals. According Roux, the zoo started as a botanic park. "It was called the Queen's Park Area and was officially opened in 1896 by Queen's Victoria during her visit to South Africa. It may have become a zoo sometime in the 1930s, but we cannot be sure as we have no records of the exact date."

The family-friendly venue, with a playground for children as well as a miniature steam train for rides around the park, is popular with the city's residents. About 100 000 people visit the zoo every year.

"While this is a good number, we would like to increase the number of visitors," Roux says. The zoo has plans to encourage tourists to visit as well as to provide value-for-money recreational experiences for local residents. About 40% of visitors to the zoo are school children.

As well as running educational tours, the zoo also carries out research on behalf of regional universities and holds information talks on conservation issues.

Popular among the visitors are the lions, tigers, bears, jaguars, chimpanzees and wolves, says Roux. "Everyone loves the lion cubs and sometimes we allow visitors to handle them."

More than 100 species are represented. "We have recently acquired some wild dogs," says Roux.

The upkeep of the zoo is costly and acquiring animals is especially expensive. The white lion cub, says Roux, is worth about R200 000.

There are plans to extend the zoo, with a further 40 hectares available. However, the zoo will have to raise funds to make it more spacious for both the animals and visitors. One of the zoo's priorities is to enlarge the giraffe enclosure.

The Buffalo City municipality supports the zoo financially. Friends of the East London Zoo is an organisation that helps with fund-raising.

"We generate our own funds and the Friends of the East London Zoo raise funds for us when we need to upgrade one of our facilities or acquire new animals," says Roux.

Roux knows that the plans to extend and upgrade the zoo will be a slow process, but he is optimistic that they can be realised.

In the meantime, visitors can sit back and watch the antics of the chimpanzees.