Animal Keeper's Association of Africa

In the middle of the urban jungle is a haven which many animals call home, this is Lory Park Zoo and owl Sanctuary. For the last eleven years the Park has taken in injured, confiscated and neglected wildlife. In the last few years the zoo has had a huge success with breeding of endangered cats like Tigers and the South American Ocelot. Lory Park Zoo has both Bengal and Siberian tigers. There were originally eight subspecies of tigers, but today only five of those remain and are all critically endangered .This is due to the fact that there is a huge medicinal demand for their body parts and the fast growing human population of the East has caused massive habitat loss for these giant cats. Together we have partnered up with Race against Extinction to educate the public about the plight of these amazing cats.

We also have an array of South African birds that are threatened and are part of a captive breeding program, like the Southern African Ground hornbills.  Over the years the staff at Lory Park has also seen many traumatic cases with regards to owls. Midrand area had a wonderful abundance of wildlife, but due to the fast development of this area, each week owls, plovers and other birds are brought to the park that have been poisoned or are a victim of a road accident. Some of the animals can be rehabilitated, but sadly others are not as fortunate and will remain in the Park.

As education is one of the Lory Park Zoo main objections we do school tours, which are in line with the South African school’s curriculum and offer a variety of specialized tours for the schools.
During the school holidays we offer kids programmes like our Ranger Day program which allows the kids to get firsthand experience of what it’s like to work with and around animals. They get to shadow our keepers and assist with the feeding, cleaning and enriching of the animals.

The Zoo is involved in a number of community outreach programs within the Midrand community.