Cuba’s National Zoo to Receive Animals from Namibia

Havana, Mar 22. – Cuba's National Zoo is preparing its facilities to receive a group of animals from Namibia in the next few months, said Alberto Martin, director of the welfare and exhibition department.

The facility is undergoing construction, remodeling, maintenance and reorganization works in the areas and buildings, as the Zoo will receive 143 specimens of 23 species valued at about 17 million dollars, Martin told Prensa Latina.

The animals include white-backed vultures, ostriches, leopards, cheetahs, buffaloes, elephants, white and black rhinos, brown and spotted hyenas, and antelopes, which will arrive in two groups, the first one in May-June and the second one in late 2012, he said.

Works in the four quarantine areas are almost completed, where the animals will stay for 45 days after arriving in the country for observation and routine medical checkups to look for possible diseases, before being transferred to their final destination in the park, he said.

For his part, Armando Barrios, a public relations and promotion expert, said the zoo will also receive a very special crocodile, a Cuban specimen that was shown to Pope Benedict XVI in a recent public hearing in the Vatican.

The two-year-old crocodile will be delivered at the Zoo on March 23, three days before the Pope´s visit to Cuba, Barrios said.

An Italian delegation from the Bioparco Foundation will bring the reptile, Crocodylus rhombife, which is endemic to Cuba and is considered an endangered species, from Zoo of Rome.(Prensa Latina)