Why Achimota Zoo Is Losing Patronage

By Ohemaa A. AMOAKO

Beauty and love for creation were given for free; so is the touch of the earth, its moist and fertile soil. Often, a zoo is a place reserved for seeing such beautiful and wonderful creation of God. It helps in relieving a person of stress.

In this regard, the new Achimota Zoo is blessed with beautiful vegetation and a jungle where tourists can tour around and enjoy themselves freely.

But awareness about the new zoo appears very low among Ghanaians. So, people hardly visit the place as compared to when it was at its previous location.

The old Accra Zoological Garden was located at Kanda - in the present place of the Flag Staff House - but was moved in late 2006 to make way for the construction of the presidential seat. Majority of the animals were transferred to the Kumasi Zoo while a small number was relocated to the Achimota Forest.

The vision, at the time, was to construct a modern eco park, which will encompass the zoo, at the forest.

More than ten years on, Business Day has learnt that the public's awareness about the presence of the zoo in the Achimota Forest is still minimal, impacting on the number of visitors. The old Accra Zoo was considered one of the most patronised tourist sites in the country, attracting an estimated 120,000 visitors annually.

When Business Day visited the Achimota facility last Tuesday, Zoo Keeper Theo Klevor appealed to the government to speed up its efforts in building the said recreational eco park to facilitate relaxation.

According to Klevor, there is the need to pay much attention to eco-tourism since it can fetch the country a lot of revenues for socio-economic development.

"Elsewhere, lots of revenues are generated from eco parks but the situation here is rather deteriorating. We need to reinvest in such ventures to attract more tourists," he added.

Open to everybody, entry to the Achimota Zoo can be secured by paying a fee. Officials charge pupils GHC2.00 per head whilst university students pay GHC5.00 per head. A student shows their identification card to authenticate their identity.

Meanwhile, adult Ghanaians pay GHC10.00 while non-Ghanaians, regardless of age, pay GHC20.00 for touring the beautiful zoo.

Lone camel

Worth a place to visit, the zoo has some of the world's most popular animals one can ever come across; and they include striped hyena, wild geese, monkey, python, crocodile, camel, rabbit, antelope, bush cat, bush pig, among others.

"What we need here are more animals to attract people who will see the facility as an interesting place to visit," Klevor indicated.

The zoo's only camel, Business Day gathered, was donated by Bishop Dag Heward-Mills. Camels are toed ungulate within the gens camelus family, bearing distinctive fatty deposit, known as the humps, on their backs.

Camels are mostly in three species: The dromedary or one-humped camel, which inhabits African countries in the Middle East, the Bactria or two-humped camel, which inhabits Central Asia and the endangered Bactrian camel, which has a limited number in remote areas of North-West China and Magnolia.

The lifespan of a camel is 60 years and it feeds on some selected grasses.

Also at the zoo is the Kob, which is a member of the antelope family and feeds on selected grasses. Its lifespan is 50 years.

The zoo keepers call these wonderful creatures by human names, which aids in identification. For instance, the Jackal is called 'Jackie.'

Set back

Though the zoo affords you the opportunity to see some animals you usually wouldn't find around, the animals look thin and unhealthy, perhaps due to low nutrition.

In addition, there are just a few zoo guides to take tourists or individuals visiting the facility round; hence it makes touring the place less exciting. There aren't so many different kinds of animals at the zoo; but hey, it is still a zoo.

In sum, the Achimota Zoo seems to be losing a lot of revenue due to low patronage of the facility by tourists and visitors.

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