Porcupine-enclosure

Good grief! This looks like some sort of shantytown. Not everywhere can have a Loro Parque level of manicured perfection, but this is something else..

@sooty mangabey It's probably worth re-reading my two-paragraph, hilarious review of De Paay...the worst of the 95 zoos that I saw on my European summer trek.

Zoo/Aquarium # 73: De Paay (Beesd, NL)

This is probably one of the five worst zoos that I’ve ever visited. My main reason for that opening statement is that at De Paay there is an air of neglect about the place and it was as if I had stumbled upon some lost and semi-abandoned zoo in the forest. At least a quarter of all the exhibits have no signs, and I have probably 10 photos on my camera of signs that are all peeling, illegible, covered in god-only-knows-what and that about summarizes the state of the entire zoo. A pacing Tayra is in an exhibit of some height but there is no signage anywhere and it is easy to put your fingers through the wire at the side of the enclosure. There is a young Caracal that can put part of its paws through the fence and attempt to nab people on the ankles. There is a bizarre Kea exhibit that sees aviaries on either side of the path and then a snake-like trail from one to the other that is all covered in metal. I was walking on top of the Kea as it tried to peck at my shoes!

There is poo everywhere and the place stinks. Whether the poo is from the free-ranging chickens clucking in all directions, from the various animals in overhead walkways that relieve themselves in the general vicinity of visitors, or from the owner’s Great Dane…whatever the case, the smell of the zoo is overwhelming in places. This is an awful establishment, one that probably needs to be shut down for good so that people don’t have to stare at a small pile of dirt that is a Yellow Mongoose exhibit. The Nutria pool is ghastly, with water so murky that I don’t want to guess what is swirling around in terms of virulent bacteria. The zoo has a Greater Grison, or at least there is a ****-covered sign up with that name on it, but whether the junkyard of an exhibit actually contains such an elusive creature is up for debate. Everything is home-made and how the place is allowed to stay open without being legislated for closure is beyond my grasp of the situation. The Netherlands has given me a rich bounty of great zoos on this trip, but De Paay is a rotten, stinky apple that has the sweet stench of a sour odour.

I love the homemade wheelbarrow in the picture, which is clearly a shopping trolley without any back wheels and some handles welded on. Surely buying an actual wheelbarrow would have been easier than the botch job pictured above?