PETA will be outside protesting zoo visitor conditions now, although they don't care about any organisms except themselves (not their species).
Hi Luca, I was curious about this zoo after seeing an old picture of the elephant exhibit and came across this story from 2013 about the zoo being redeveloped: Naples Zoo: work begins, inauguration in a few months Did the African savanna exhibit with zebras, ostriches, and giraffes ever get built? Does the zoo still have elephants?
Thanks, Luca. I just visited the zoo's website and they have some nice video footage of the new tiger and savanna exhibits. It looks like they have expanded the elephant exhibit also by combining several old exhibit spaces? Overall it looks like the zoo is doing a very nice job of creating good spaces for its animals.
Well, for some species is true, for others no. Yellow mongooses, meerkats (yes, meerkats), little felines (caracal and serval), ring-tailed lemurs and some reptiles have awfully small exhibits! Lions and hippos aren't lucky either. Fortunally I've heard they are going to improve the reptile house (which is awful).
Two females rheas arrived some months ago. If the male doesn't kill them and they convive, they will be pute in an exhibit (which will be slightly modified) with maybe another South American species. They tried to put one of the hystrixes within the two meerkats (probably the only zoo in the world which hosts only two meerkats in a cage), but it didn't worked and now it is in the aviary with Shiva. The De Brazza's monkey exhibit is finally done. Also two mongooses are arrived.
There are some news: 1) Now in the zoo there are five Gray-crowned Cranes. Two of them are in the African aviary (with Sacred Ibises and White Storks), the other three have been moved to another aviary which they share with a group of De Brazza's Monkeys. I hope they're going to continue their breeding programme... 2) The exhibit which hosted the breeding couple of the cranes is now empty. It will be modified to host another species during this year. Ditto with the enclosure that hosts domestic pigs next to the fossa exhibit (which has a couple of them). 3)The American Red Squirrels have been transferred to another zoo. 4) Indian Star Turtles (Geochelone elegans) are arrived. They are being hosted in one of the terrariums of the reptile house, but when the weather will be hotter they are going to be moved outside. 5)Speaking of the Reptile House, it is under renovation. I hope it will get better, because for now it's pretty bad.
The Lemur island now is larger and has more environmental enrichments. New substrates have been added in many exhibits (like the Siamang one). The Reptile House is still under renovation, ditto with two enclosures which will be probably finished during the next months.
I've seen how hard a Crowned Crane can strike with its beak. One the other hand, monkeys can gang up.....trouble waiting to happen.
Crowned have probably a marginally less dangerous beak than the much longer and more pointed beaks of Grus and Anthropoides Cranes which can make very dangerous daggers. Crowned are inclined to 'paddle' with their legs when handled and so their claws can be serious too. Having said that, just look at the canines of a DeBrazza or any other Guenon... I think we've been here before....?
Definitely been here before, in more ways than one..... We've both seen what a punch an aggressive Crowned can deliver when he really draws his neck back and strikes with his beak! But as you say, Guenons are formidably armed, could probably take down a crane if they worked mob-handed, it just wouldn't be pretty, and neither you nor I would take that chance To me, this is 'birds as wallpaper' yet again.
From what I understood, the zoo is going to shut down some facilities, like ticket shops or the "Hut of Knowledge" (Capanna del Sapere in Italian) because they were built after the 1977 and so they are abusive. (Only the buildings which were made before 1977 were approved and considered "legitimate").
