This is the first in a potential new series, where I find subpar or outright bad zoos and give their inhabitants much better conditions.
Further description and species list in the comments.
We start off the series in Albania, with the Tirana Zoo, focus of many controversies in the recent past. However, as I post this, there's real talk about reforming the zoo, so I hope it pans out, and I wonder if any of my predictions will come true. Which bad zoos would you like me to reform next? Alexandria (Egypt), St. Petersburg... Feel free to share your ideas!
Albanian waters and Barnyard
A: Entrance complex
B: Gift store
1- Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus); free-roaming
Greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus), great white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus)
2- Black stork (Ciconia nigra), Eurasian crane (Grus grus grus), Western great white egret (Ardea alba alba), grey heron (Ardea cinerea), glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), western reef heron (Egretta gularis), West Mediterranean purple swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio porphyrio), marbled teal (Marmaronetta angustirostris), red-crested pochard (Netta rufina), marbled teal (Marmaronetta angustirostris), white-headed duck (Oxyura leucocephala), Eurasian goldeneye (Bucephala clangulaclangula), falcated teal (Mareca falcata)
Very interesting concept! Maybe a thread with comparisons to the current zoo would highlight the improvements
Also: I would like to nominate Pakawi park and Uilenpark de Paay from Belgium and the Netherlands. We have a lot of high quality zoos but those two are considered some of the worst (Pakawi park to a lesser extent, but still bad)
Tirana and Albania are very good choices, this remote corner of Europe is very barely known by the general public.
If you want suggestions about bad zoos to improve, I would think to the Napoli Zoo (that was in severe decay few years ago), and Belgrade, Yerevan and Yekaterinburg that have bad reputations (for the zoos). I've also seen videos about a very weird Japanese petting zoo (looking like a kind of supermarket, where it's possible to see a Shoebill, Echidnas and many small animals in small cages and tanks) but it may be difficult to find any map of this facility, if it exists.
In my country (France) I think about the Fréjus Zoo (a medium-sized zoo with an ideal climate and a good potential, but that suffered poor management and bad urban planning policies ; it has lost most of its ABC species and a few rarities in recent years, even if some interesting carnivore, primate and bird species remain), and the Jardin des Plantes de Paris (not properly a bad zoo, but difficult to develop given the little space available, the lack of funds and even the building conservation rules).
It would be interesting to describe zoos in various developing countries of Africa, Middle East and Asia ; I don't know any of them but some of these zoos are reported to be awful, while they have a huge potential in most of these countries with the conservation of the native biodiversity and the education of the citizens about it.
@Haliaeetus I really like all of your proposals! I didn't know about Fréjus zoo, but it definitely seems to fit the role. The Menagerie has always been at the bottom of my mind, as I feel that it could be reworked somewhat. The Napoli zoo, Belgrade zoo and all those strange Asian and African institutions are really worth looking into. As I said, the Alexandria and Giza Zoos in Egypt have often struck me as really terrible. But again, they can be true biodiversity hotspots.
