Loro Parque took advantage of the day prior to the celebration of its 50th anniversary to present two new facilities that will soon be completed with a large coral atoll.
Loro Parque celebrates half a century today in continuous renovation. The emblematic zoo of Porto, inaugurated on December 17, 1972, does not stop improving its facilities and on the day before its 50th anniversary it opened two new spaces dedicated to numerous species of nymphs, parrots, parakeets, roselles and parrots from Oceania and to Sebas’ short-tailed or fruit bats (Carollia perspicillata), native to South and Central America. Work is also underway on the upcoming opening of a large coral atoll that will occupy the old Naturavisión cinema, “which will be the largest facility of its kind in the world and will try to raise awareness about the need to protect coral reefs in all seas.” of the planet”, as announced yesterday by the president and founder of Loro Parque, Wolfgang Kiessling.
The novelties of Loro Parque that are now open to the public are La Gruta, a dark recreation of a bat cave, full of stalactites and stalagmites where dozens of these flying mammals live. Through a glass, soundproofed to protect these animals, the visitor can contemplate the incessant flight of these small bats that feed on fruit, pollen and insects. The second novelty is called Oceania and it is a large aviary, with five domes, where Australian species such as nymphs fly freely; the red-winged and regent parrots; beautiful and brilliant parrots; blue-faced, Port Lincoln, elegant, cloncurry, Australian king, green-winged, hooded, multicolored, red-headed, stanley or horned parakeets, or northern and pale-headed rosellas, among others.
Two new spaces with a lot of contrast: from the darkness of the bat cave to the color of a garden where birds fly freely among the visitors. Near the main entrance, after leaving the koi carp pond behind, Loro Parque has since yesterday the busts of its two founders: Wolfgang Kiessling and his wife Brigitte Kiessling. Some faces, immortalized in metal by the artists Vicky Penfold and Julio Nieto, who from now on will welcome all visitors to what has been considered on several occasions by Trip Advisor as the best zoo in the world.
Today, starting at 6:30 p.m., Orca Ocean will host the official act to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Loro Parque, a historic date that Wolfgang Kiessling also wanted to commemorate with the publication of the book Do it with parrots, son, they only eat a few grains and they last like a hundred years, the work of Jutta Vogel and Inger Fire. This is a biography of Wolfgang Kiessling, which reviews a lifetime marked since 1972 by the opening of an installation with 150 parrots and parrots, which soon became the largest collection in the world.
“It started as something very small”
Wolfgang Kiessling offered a press conference yesterday in which he recalled that Loro Parque “began humbly” in 1972, “as something very small, with just 150 parrots and 25 workers on a 13,000-square-meter piece of land.” A career of “50 years of success” which, in his opinion, is due to the fact that both he and his wife have worked “more for the company than for our private life.” After overcoming the Covid crisis, which forced them to maintain the park with practically no visitors, “but with 240 people working daily to maintain it”, the Loro Parque Group is experiencing good times, “despite the fact that the electricity bill has gone from 3 .5 million euros a year to 9.2 million”. He recalled that since the 1990s, the Loro Parque Fundación has allocated a large amount of resources to finance environmental projects around the world (more than 24 million dollars) that, for example, have made it possible to “prevent the extinction of 12 species of parrots”, such as the macaw. of Lear or the yellow-eared parrot, among others. | RS
