Naples Zoo Naples Zoo News

A Slender-horned Gazelle has been born at Naples Zoo: Naples Zoo announces birth of endangered slender-horned gazelle

 

The zoo recently received 2 Eastern Hognose Snakes that just came out of quarantine.

 

Scarlet the 14 year old Cheetah passed away. Her sister, Pia still lives at the zoo.

 

The Ring-tailed Lemurs are now on the Primate Expedition Cruise. Presumably switched out with the Red Ruffeds, which would now be near the Fossas.

 

Mr. Brown, the Common Brown Lemur, along with his companion White-headed Lemur, Victoria (the only one left in the US) are now in the enclosure next to the Fossas. They needed to make accommodations for his health issues as Mr. Brown is very old and has arthritis and is nearly blind. He turned 39 today making him one of the oldest lemurs in the world.

 

2.0 Eastern Bongos, Makumi and Bakari, moved to Lion Country Safari.

 

Mr. Brown the Common brown lemur has passed away at 39:

Oldest brown lemur in North America dies in Naples Zoo at 39

According to the Naples Zoo, he was the oldest living brown lemur in North America and possibly the world with the average lifespan for his species being between 20 and 25-years-old.

The lemur joined the other animals at the Naples Zoo in June 1990.

 

Eko the Malayan Tiger was shot by a deputy after an employee of a third-party cleaning service put his arm through the fencing and Eko attacked him. I pray Eko survived.

Malayan tiger attacks man at Naples Zoo; deputy shoots tiger

 

Update: Eko the tiger has sadly passed away.

Naples Zoo tiger shot & killed after attacking man who stuck arm in enclosure
Man hospitalized after being attacked by a tiger at Naples Zoo, tiger dies after being shot

 

This is beyond awful. The blame lies on roadside zoos and private owners who take photos of them playing with their adult big cats and make it look like something people can do, along with the cleaning company for not supervising and not ensuring their employees know they can't interact with the animals, especially the deadly ones. This isn't Naples Zoo's fault.

 

I blame the deputy too for shooting Eko. He was defending his territory from an intruder who didn't value his own arm or life.

 

@Elena: I can completely understand you from the emotional side. But police officers/security deputies must also protect bodies and lives of foolish, stupid and/or reckless people...

 

Having visited Naples Zoo just 2 days ago this has me pretty emotional. I saw Eko in his exhibit and he was being extremely vocal and active, which is pretty rare. A definite crowd pleaser. I feel horrible that this situation happened and am angry someone would be this reckless, but I 100% understand why the sheriffs had to shoot the cat. From what I understand they weren’t necessarily even shooting to kill as much as shooting to have him release from the mans arm. We have stupid people in this society and its horrible when people make idiotic decisions such as this, that lead to the deaths of animals such Eko but I don’t really know what else could’ve been done.

 

Just heard about this. Absolutely horrible!!! Stupidity knows no bounds. I hope that the zoo saved reproductive samples from Eko's body to deep freeze in liquid nitrogen for possible future AI so he can posthumously contribute his genes to the Malayan Tiger SSP. This not only worries me because of what happened but also what can happen at other numerous AZA and ZAA facilities. Jacksonville's Land of the Tiger exhibit has barriers only like 3.5 feet tall and only about 5 feet from both Sumatran and Malayan Tiger exhibits. I hate to think that because of people's stupidity that barriers would have to be raised higher or using only glass, but if it means saving a critically endangered species because certain individuals endanger their life due to their actions then I'm all for it. This is worse than the Harambe incident.

 

F***ing infuriates me of the stupidity of people. I have little sympathy for this man who should not have been in that area,and it cost the tiger his life.Had the idiot been INSIDE the cage i would have felt more sympathetic,for both. Just wish the cops had the chance to resolve it without harm to the tiger,or at least shooting it elsewhere with more of a chance of survival,though its not surprising coming from a country whose cops have itchy trigger happy fingers at other times

 

As someone who works in the industry, I will say that these knee jerk reactions, especially by those that otherwise support zoos, do not help anyone. It is absolutely a tragedy, and it absolutely could have been prevented. That said, from what I have seen and read, and from what I know by working in the industry, there was no other outcome for this situation. It does appear as though the officer did try to distract the tiger before resorting the lethal force. Local emergency response teams work closely with accredited facilities and are trained on how to respond to emergencies in zoological settings. The human life will always come first in these situations, and most dangerous animals (large predators, large primates, elephants, rhinos, hippos, even male takin and zebra and other species ) are listed as shoot to kill in emergency protocols. Does this fact make it any less tragic that we lost a critically endangered animal as result of a person’s lack of common sense? Absolutely not. Does it mean that we should not learn from this event and reevaluate the training of the emergency response teams for zoological facilities and the after hour emergency protocols for zoological facilities? Absolutely not. But it doesn’t mean that those having to make those calls in these high stress, high emotion situations do not do what they believe is best in the moment given the protocols in place.

 

This is awful. I honestly wouldn’t mind if they had fed that man to the tiger!!! @Eric, I will agree, the cops in this country are way too trigger happy. Just another thing to add to my list of things I don’t understand about the USA (despite being born and being raised in it, I dunno if it’s because I’m young and don’t understand, but I doubt that is the reason). People like him, as well as the people in the Harambe incident (including the cops) should be given massive punishments. This is such a sad story, and I hope the zoo staff are coping with loss in better way than I would have.

 

I just hope that any potential protective barriers put up to prevent further stupidity are at least tastefully designed. The lengths that San Francisco went to prevent another Tatiana incident were very much overkill, as not only did they increase the height of the moat wall by adding glass (acceptable), they ADDED HOTWIRE TO THE LIONS/TIGER'S EDGE OF THE MOAT, MAKING AN ALREADY SMALL HABITAT EVEN SMALLER.

 

While this is a very very tragic incident, I don’t blame the cops for this. It was nearly 100% that *uninteligent* (to put it lightly) man’s fault. It’s the cops’ duty to protect all citizens, whether they are good people or bad. Like it has been stated, the man’s life will be seen as more important than the tiger in this situation. I read that they did have a tranquilizer gun but didn’t use it because they knew it would take too long to set in and they didn’t want to risk the man’s life. My heart goes out to Eko’s keepers and I hope he rests in peace. The good thing is he has a number of close relatives in the population that can continue his family’s genes.

I’m obviously not supporting him but considering he is seriously injured and from what I’ve read he has a difficult recovery ahead of him, I think that is more than enough of a punishment.

 

Maybe, maybe. This will probably affect him for the rest of his life, won’t it? I guess that’s karma for you.