Baghdad, Iraq ? Baghdad’s zoo opened its doors to the public Sunday, but in this lawless, occupied city, it appeared to be a bit early for a pleasant day in the park.

Only a few dozen people, most of them young men, wandered into the newly renovated park to see the lions, jaguars and monkeys wilting in 122-degree heat.

Coalition radio had issued a call for Baghdad residents to visit the zoo on opening day, saying the 3-cent entrance fee would be waived.

To get there, however, families had to brave the violent streets of Baghdad and negotiate several U.S. military checkpoints around the zoo, where some soldiers insisted no civilians were allowed to pass.

Highlighting the threat, 68 security guards patrolled the zoo and the surrounding park with Kalashnikov assault rifles. Off-duty American soldiers wandered among the cages. A few brave civilians ventured into the zoo as well, and all said they liked what they saw.

“I’ve been mostly inside my house for the last few months,” said Zahara Abdul A’emma, 11. “I missed things like this.”

She came with her father, a pharmacist, and her three little sisters, who marveled at the blind bear pacing in a cage labeled “sheep dog,” the skinny jaguars in a cage marked “chimpanzee” and the German shepherds in a cage marked “rhesus monkey.”

The zoo itself, which in 2001 had 1.5 million visitors, has hit hard times recently. Saddam Hussein closed it for renovation last year, and it was scheduled to reopen on April 7 with a $27 million facelift.

Instead, on that day, American troops were on the outskirts of Baghdad, and Iraqi fighters had booted the zookeepers from the park, setting up defensive positions among the cages.

When zoo workers returned a week later, some animals lay dead in their cages, others had escaped when mortar rounds blasted open the bars, and yet others had been looted.

A U.S. Army soldier stands with Iraqis as they view a camel at the newly reopened Baghdad Zoo. Soldiers outnumbered visitors Sunday at the zoo.

“It was a miserable situation,” said the zoo’s director, Adel Selman Moussa. “We tried to coax the animals into their cages, and we gave them water from the lake. We slaughtered the boars to feed the lions and bought some vegetables for the bears.”

Since then, the surviving animals have been nursed back to health, and more animals have been brought in from a small private zoo across town and from the private zoos found in the palaces of Saddam’s family, including son Odai.

Several foreign aid groups have helped with donations of food, medicine and money.