Zoo Di Napoli - Oct 2010
Following my earlier posts, I visited Zoo di Napoli last week (as well as the fabulous Anton Dohrn Aquarium (the oldest Aquarium in the world) no doubt a subject of a future post)....
I don't have a great deal to add to Bradipo's very accurate review from Feb of this year
http://www.zoochat.com/274/zoo-di-napoli-my-review-feb-131825/
The zoo remains dominated by empty cages/ enclosures and run down (if still very interesting from a historic perspective) buildings.
Willie the Fur Seal has now died and his enclosure (in the bear complex) is now occupied only by a large sign showing his picture and a note informing of the reason for his absence (although it would seem quite easy to open this area up for access by the Brown Bears).
The old monkey house (which until recently apparantely held Leopards - now moved elsewhere) was empty except for a lone (and by the looks of him extremely elderly) Masked Palm Civet - in fact his markings were so faded it took some time to actually identify what species the scraggly, brown, pacing individual actually was.
There is another fairly large enclosure right next to the old monkey house (not mentioned by Bradipo) which appears quite recently rennovated (with viewing window and wooden shelter) and is heavily planted and actually looks pretty good. Does anyone know what this was originally used for. It currently seems to hold a large group of Demoiselle Crane.
Overall, I would echo Bradipo's finishing comments - the zoo is pretty depressing as it currently stands (especially on quiet days - we were one of only approx. 10 visitors the afternoon we visited and this gave the place a very eery quality - like a place just waiting for the bulldozer to roll-in). It really felt like the zoo had been built and then literally left to the ravages of time without change/ maintenance since. There is certainly potential here - the grounds/ gardens are stunning (in fact the zoo almost spoils them by being there). A huge amount of investment would be required to bring it back to anything like a modern zoo should be and I would find it difficult to argue against anyone who suggested that some of the currently held species should not be there (elephant, tigers) unless funding could be found to improve their accomodation significantly.
But much could be done with a relatively small budget and a step-wise approach with the existing enlosures by focusing on smaller mammals and birds (as has been done successfully at many other old zoos).
I will upload a small selection of photos shortly but if anyone is interested in additional photos of anything in particular please just ask (I took hundreds!).