The Naples Zoo is a 43-acre zoo and historic botanical garden. The first plantings were done by botanist and ornithologist Dr. Henry Nehrling in 1919. The gardens were neglected after Nehrling's death in 1929. In the 1950s, Julius Fleischmann added new plantings, created lakes and a pathway, and introduced parrots and waterfowl and opened as Caribbean Gardens in 1954.