I am by no means a zoo junkie, but this was perhaps the saddest zoo I’ve ever visited. The pens were small and many of the larger animals were in poor shape. The big cats seemed to be suffering the greatest. The tigers were located in a concrete cage about the size of a boxcar. Thankfully, they have plans to expand and improve the tiger confinement soon.
On the other hand, I got to see some beautiful animals that I don’t know if I’ve ever seen before. They had many beautiful birds including flamingoes and cranes with these crazy puffs on their head. The lemurs were amazing. I love their striking, high contrast markings. We also got to see wallabies, which basically look like miniature kangaroos (in fact, the signs listed them as kangaroos).
My favorite part of the zoo was the new addition, the Nuova Fattoria, or farm animal section. This weekend was the grand opening of the area. Smaller, domesticated animals were featured here including alpacas, miniature goats and horses, bunnies (none quite as cute as Noelle) and donkeys. The pens here are more approachable and it is permissible to pet some of the animals. Noelle got pretty freaked out when we let one of the donkeys get too close, though.
In the end, I can’t say I recommend visitors to Naples spend their time at the zoo, but we enjoyed ourselves and it was great to be outside on such a beautiful day!