I am shocked. Nanjing Hongshan is far from a good zoo. It already holds orangs and chimps (not as a functional troop) in some of the better exhibits at the zoo, and it is, I believe, government-run, which prevents some of the worst aspects of commercial zoos in China from materialising, but there are still plenty of pretty awful enclosures there.
Still, they recently acquired koalas, maybe we are witness the beginning of a severe upward trajectory.
Actually Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo is highly regarded by Chinese zoo enthusiasts as one of the most progressive zoos in China in recent years.
A little historical background, the zoo was formerly known as Xuanwu Lake Zoo, located at Xuanwu Lake Park (I visited the old site as a child and still remember a ocelot-morph Asian golden cat from that visit). The zoo moved to its current site in 1998, but as most of the Chinese zoos built in that period, the “new” zoo is nothing more than a bunch of old-style pits and cages in a larger space. The zoo was underfunded for years. Following another common practice at that time, numerous parts of zoo was outsourced to the private sector, including the horrible “reptile house”. Small-scale modernization started under the new leadership since early 2010s, with the hornbill aviary in 2011, introduction of modern elephant husbandry protocol in 2012, meerkat exhibit in 2013, orangutan exhibit in 2015, among other renovations to the existing enclosures.
The zoo proposed an ambitious masterplan in 2015 and secured full funding from the city government. In 2017 they fenced a wooded slope for Chinese water deers and Reeve’s muntjacs. A brand new “Asian Primates” complex opened in 2019. Rows of old cat cages have been razed, and the new “Asian Cats” exhibit is coming this year, featuring leopard cat, Eurasian lynx, North Chinese leopard and an 1-acre tiger exhibit. Adjustments to the masterplan have been made to minimize the impact to the habitat of Chinese ferret badgers, which are native to the zoo ground. Though the reptile house isn’t going anytime soon due to legal issues, all outsourced parts are certainly to be condemned once the their lease expires.
I realize this post should be better posted in the Hongshan thread but I’d like to post it here for any Burgers’ Zoo fans who may have concerns about the moving of the gorillas. So far Hongshan hasn’t made any announcement, but I’m not that surprised based on the quality of new exhibits the zoo opened in the past decade.
