Albay Park or Wildlife
Albay Park is one of the tourist spots in Albay with leisure spaces for the family. A picnic grove and a park rolled into one, this place is the best way to commune with nature.
You can have a satisfying get-together with your family and friends or enjoy and learn with your classmates on an educational tour while roaming the park that houses 347 animals belonging to 75 species. It was under rehabilitation in six months and was reopened to the public last April 2016. The Albay Park and Wildlife provides its local residents a vast space for communing with nature and exotic animals. It also have that wide of property for interacting with each other in the most natural ways.
According to Dr. Pancho Milla, Albay Park and Wildlife administrator, he is confident that more people will come to the park as it has been enhanced with Php87-million from the provincial funding. Aside from the wall, the provincial government also constructed well-maintained food court, activity center, picnic cottages, lagoons, butterfly house, additional cages and Mini Park inside and there are also robotic dinosaurs from China.
At present, there are 10 different species of mammals in the park which include tigers, monkeys, wild boars, miniature horse. There are also 99 avian creatures with 23 different species like owls, ostriches, bengalas, eagles, canaries, ground pigeons and many more.
The park also includes 11 various species of reptiles such as pythons, snakes, iguanas, crocodiles, exotic turtles and others. The preserved body of an 800-kg mega mouth shark is a favorite attraction in the park which was recovered last year in the town of Albay’s west coast.
The administration spends 45,000 pesos daily for the food alone of these creatures. According to Milla, all expenses are fully recovered from the 260, 000 visitors that visit it yearly that translates to Php3.5 million annual income.
But it seems that there is a decrease of animals after the renovation. The butterfly house does not even contain a single butterfly, but it contains ducks inside. Some species of birds that were present before renovation are gone and the preserved mega-mouth shark emits foul odor which can be sensed when someone passes by the door of the hall were the carcass of the mega mouth shark is being preserved.
It looks like the government spent more money on establishing the place as a park instead of a zoo.
Before the renovation there were more animals but few infrastructures for the convenience of the visitors. Afterward, there is a decrease in number of animals, but many new facilities and new attractions are added. When the improvements after the renovation is equated with the total budget of 87 million pesos, it can be observed that the budget is greater than the improvements.
