The year of 2006 confirmed that the growth of the interest in the zoo that was in 2005 reflected in the increasing attendance rates and presentation of the zoo in the media was not an accidental divergence but a trend that is slowly getting stable. Although there were no new great expositional complexes opened, people are attracted to the zoo by the improved services, varied offer of the programmes and interesting presentations of the animals.

 

1. CEREMONIES

Ceremonial opening of the season 1^st April 2006 – baptism of ground cuscus, hairy armadillo, Rothschild’s giraffe and Bactrian camel, guests - the actors Daniela Šinkorová, Dana Syslová, Petr Rychlý and Tomáš Krejčíř

 

MAYDAY or the Day of Rhinoceroses 1^st May 2006 – How Czech children protect rhinoceroses − presentation of school projects on the topic “Save the rhino”, guests J. Lábus (actor), the music group Jablkoň, J. Samson Lenk (musician)

 

Days of children in the Prague zoo 1^st – 3^rd June 2006

Entrance for children free of charge, Night of dreams – programme for the families with handicapped children, The second day of rhinos (presentation of school projects on the topic “Save the rhino”)

 

Baptism of the little hippopotamus 25^th June 2006 – guests dr. Pavel Bém (mayor of the city of Prague), Mahulena Bočanová (actress), Karel Vančura (IPODEC company)

 

Jubilee ceremony 28^th Sept 2005 – celebration of the 75^th anniversary of the opening of the Prague zoo, baptism of the lowland tapir, guests Jiřina Jirásková (actress), Jiří Suchý (musician), prof. Zdeněk Veselovský (former director of the zoo), Pražští krasoplavci, Karel Heřmánek (actor)

 

Meeting of the sponsors and the friends of the zoo 2^nd Dec 2006 – Old Czech Christmas and St. Nicolas in the zoo, guests Jiří Suchý (musician), Jiří Koubek (musician)

 

Moja celebrates her second birthday 16^th Dec 2006 – baptism of the book about Moja, birthday party at the gorillas, guests Kateřina Brožová (actress), Ester Kočičková (singer and presenter), Jaroslav Svěcený (violin virtuoso)

 

Christmas day in the Prague zoo 24^th Dec 2006 – come and wish happy Christmas to the animals, Christmas fairy tale, entrance for children free of charge

 

2. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

 

Lectures, panel discussions and guided tours

We still develop the co-operation with the schools that have the education in the zoo involved in their syllabuses and it is an inherent part of the class activities as well as the out-of-the-class activities. We prepared new topics and new worksheets and methodological materials for individual grades at schools. As a novelty we prepared the so-called teacher packs – a collection of products of nature, worksheets and methodological instructions that the teachers could borrow for free for the time they spend in the zoo. In 2006 we prepared two different topics in this way.

 

For the schools at various grades we realized:

Guided tours  – 398 tours for 10 030 children;

Educational programmes and contact talks for lower grades of elementary schools and kindergartens – 213 programmes for 5605 children (8 educational programmes, 9 topics);

Electronic worksheets – sent for free to the e-mail addresses, 8 topics for higher grades of elementary schools and grammar schools, 5 topics for the lower grades of elementary schools;

 

For other institutions including the pedagogical centres we realised 36 lectures (2650 participants), for the handicapped citizens 14 lectures (188 participants). Then we prepared for other institutions 106 guided tours and 2448 people took part in them.

 

Pedagogical and popularising activities

The staff of the zoo co-operate with universities (Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Charles University, Pedagogical Faculty of the Charles University, Czech Agricultural University, University of South Bohemia) and other institutions (Secondary school for veterinary care and gardening České Budějovice, Research Institute for farming Uhříněves, Czech Inspection of the Environment, Agency for the protection of the nature and countryside, Czech Union for protecting the environment, SVOPAP educational centre, Customs Administration – section of the training of dogs, Central criminological laboratory, Pedagogical centre of VPP). They are external specialists at the Department of didactics at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Charles University in Prague and they are also members of the central committee for Olympics in biology at the Ministry of education. They also work as the consultants or opponents of thesis, they are members of the state exams committees, work as expert lecturers and prepare scientific lectures or seminars.

The important popularising part of the workload of the staff of the zoo is the co-operation with the media (television, radio, publishing houses) and their own publications and lectures.

 

Night tours traditionally took place in January, August and December (altogether 35 dates for 6 - 9 groups each), there were 2321 participants.

We newly prepared an event called Walks around the evening Troja that offered the visitors the non-traditional visit of the Troja chateau, zoo and botanical garden. There were four “pilot” excursions with 347 participants.

 

Baptisms of animals

The year of 2006 was very successful from the breeding point of view. We therefore prepared a whole collection of baptisms of the most important young animals in the garden in the course of the whole year and the top event was in October. In this month called The Month of the Little ones we prepared Moja’s train that took the visitors around the expositions with the little animals born in that year. The journey was accompanied by a commentary that introduced the little animals. At the weekends there were the baptisms of the selected animals.

 

1^st April Daniela Šinkorová – ground cuscus, Petr Rychlý – hairy armadillo, Tomáš Krejčíř – Rothschild’s giraffe, Dana Syslová – Bactrian camel

8^th May Lukáš Polert and Barbora Strýcová – Rothschild’s giraffe

14^th May Zdeněk Škromach, Marián Hošek, Michaela Marksová-Tominová, Naďa Konvalinková – leopard tortoises

25^th June Pavel Bém, Mahulena Bočanová, Karel Vančura – hippopotamus

12^th Aug music band Wohnout – Rothschild’s giraffe

28^th Sept Karel Heřmánek – lowland tapir

7^th Oct Alena Šeredová – white cockatoo

14^th Oct Sabina Laurinová, the ambassador of Mongolia Mr Ochir Enkthuur – Przewalski’s horse

21^st Oct music band Chinaski – Rothschild’s giraffe

28^th Oct Taťána Medvecká – leopard tortoise, Chantal Poulain – Cuban ground iguana, Václav Koubek – rufous beaked snake

 

Holiday zoo-school

Also in 2006 we prepared one-day programmes for children who are interested in animals. There were 8 turns (4 in July, 4 in August) and 92 children took part in them.

 

Commented feeding and meetings with animals

They took place at 21 spots, 7 out of them were direct presentations by the breeders and elsewhere the animals were introduced by external guides of the zoo. It took place daily from June to August and in the other months at the weekends only.

 

Other programmes and media events

Programmes for the public:

Day on the poles (25^th Feb), Day in Indonesia (26^th March), Easter in the zoo (13^th –17^th April), The White Elephants awards of the Czech Zoo Foundation (19^th April), Day of Earth (22^nd April), Terriers Day (29^th April), Family Day (14^th May), Madagascar weekend (13^th –14^th May), African Day (27^th May), Elephant football (8^th June), Zoo noughts and crosses, competition for the Prague schools (21^st June), Day of the little ones (24^th June), Birthday of the tiger Asík (14^th July), Fathers’ day (2^nd Aug), Day of ABC and baptism of a giraffe (12^th Aug), Meet Oskar in the zoo – birthday of Oscar the penguin (13^th Aug), The first grade goes to the zoo (4^th Sept), Fair for handy hands – foundation of Tereza Maxová (8^th Sept), Day of senior citizens and the handicapped (1^st Oct and 4^th Oct), Bubenice workshop (21^st Oct), Photographic workshop with Ondřej Neff  (16^th Nov), Day of South America (25^th Nov), Advent workshops (26^th Nov and 3^rd Dec), The Nutcracker – performance of the dramatic studio of the young at the National theatre (17^th Dec)

 

3. OTHER IMPORTANT ACTIVITIES

 

Permanent tickets for schools

The project of the permanent tickets for schools proved to be very successful and it become the traditional part of the co-operation between the zoo and the Prague schools.

In the time from 1^st Jan to 31^st March 2006 we registered 85 holders of the tickets. 9019 children used the tickets, we prepared 108 excursions with a guide for 2698 children and 79 educational programmes and contact talks for 2047 children.

In the time form 1^st Oct to 31^st Dec 2006, 79 holders bought the permanent ticket. 6619 children used the tickets, we prepared 93 excursions with a guide for 2610 children and 89 educational programmes and contact talks for 2412 children.

 

Competition of the school projects Save the rhino

This competition was organised by the Prague zoo and started on 1^st Dec 2005. It was designed for the Prague schools as a part of the EAZA campaign for saving rhinoceroses. The outcome of the project was a spot in the area of the zoo where the pupils of a school informed the visitors of the zoo as they wanted (e.g. theatre performance, exhibition). Apart from the presentation of the project the pupils made small things and tried to raise money for support of the saving projects.11 schools took part in the event, 8 from the lower grades and 3 from the higher grades of elementary schools. Altogether the schools raised 28 495.50 CZK in two days (1^st May and at the repetition on 1^st June) for saving the rhinoceroses.

 

Competition of the school projects Save Madagascar

On 1^st Dec 2006 started a new EAZA campaign Save Madagascar – 13 school signed up by the end of the year 2006 and 4 other zoos in CR showed interest in organising the same event for their schools (Zoo Ohrada, Zoo Ústí n. L, Zoo Liberec, Zoopark Chomutov)

 

Series of lectures and musical Thursdays

In 2006 the series of winter lectures under the name of Travellers’ early evenings continued. The lectures took place from January to March and then from November to December every Thursday after the zoo had closed. Altogether there were 16 meetings and 424 visitors participated.

Just as last year the lectures were substituted by Thursday musical events, once a month from May to November.

 

Exhibitions

Smell of spices – exhibition of exotic herbs and spices and photographs in co-operation with the Prague Botanical Garden (14^th Jan – 29^th Jan)

Polar landscape in the photographs by P. Mixa (1^st Feb – 28^th Feb)

My journeys to India − exhibition of the photographs by F. Šusta (4^th March – 31^st March)

Smell of spices – exhibition of exotic herbs and spices and photographs, this time from India, in co-operation with the Prague Botanical Garden (1^st March – 31^st March)

To see the Tatran chamoises – photographs by M. Blahout (1^st April – 19^th April)

Roaming in our countryside – haptic exhibition in co-operation with the Prague Botanical Garden and the union of the blind (21^st April – 30^th April)

Save the rhino – exhibition of photographs for the EAZA campaign (1^st May –31^st May)

Exhibition of the children’s works on the topic of rhinoceroses – winners of the competition in the ABC magazine (1^st June – 30^th June)

Water world – photographs by R. Jaroňek (1^st July – 31^st Aug)

75 years of the Prague zoo – exhibition at the anniversary of the foundation of the Prague zoo  (historical photographs and documents from the archives of the zoo – 28^th Sept  2006 – 31^st March 2007)

Exhibition of haptic photographs  by P. Wiener (1^st Oct –31^st Oct)

Brazil and Cuba  in the photographs by T. Doubek (1^st Nov – 30^th Nov)

We are building a zoo − works of art by children from the Art school at Prosek (1^st Dec – 9^th Dec)

From a family album – Moja celebrates her 2^nd birthday (11^th – 30^th Dec)

 

 

Prints

Little Trojan horse – magazine for the wide public, twice a year, 3000 and 5000 copies

Tamtams from the Prague zoo – about the animals and people – internal magazine of the Prague zoo, 6 times a year, 300 copies

„Zoo in its infancy“ – desk calendar for 2007 in spiral binding with historical photographs from the archives of the Prague zoo, Czech – English version, 4000 copies

Guide of the Prague zoo or Lexicon of the animals – added and updated edition of a successful publication from 2003, DL format, hidden spiral binding, 250 pages, 10 000 copies

Orientation map of the Prague zoo – updated edition of the plan from last year

 

In co-operation with the Argo publishers we published a book of photographs “Moja – the story of miss gorilla “ about the first year of life of the gorilla baby called Moja. The author of the text is the breeder Marek Ždánský.

 

Ringier publishers published the book by J. X. Doležal “The Prague zoo“, with interviews with the employees of the Prague zoo. The book also reflects the fact that the Prague zoo celebrated the 75^th anniversary of its foundation in 2006.

 

4. PROMOTION, MARKETING AND MEDIA

 

Advertising campaigns

The popular and well appraised style of Michal Cihlář was very successful in 2006 as well. The linocut motives used in the advertising campaigns were standing out and the public identifies them easily and quickly with the Prague zoo.

That was true about the first half of the year, however, in the second half we were forced to find a new style as the long co-operation with this artist was finished.

The autumn advertising campaign represented a certain step in-between. There were photographs of the little animals born in that year by Tereza Mrhálková who is the photographer of the zoo. The billboard and citylight posters of little hippopotamus, tapir, giraffe etc. drew a lot of attention of the Prague citizens and many people called the zoo and wanted to buy these motives. The photos were also used in the advertising campaign in the newspapers Blesk and 24 hodin and also in the ABC magazine. People positively reacted to the didactic part of the campaign as many of them saw for the first time what a little tapir looks like. In any case we exploited the excellent breeding results of that year to increase the attendance rates (1.1 million people) that almost reached the record numbers of 2005 (1.2 million people).

In the course of the year we started to co-operate with a new artist Vladimír Veselý who earlier also worked on the graphic design of the magazine Little Trojan Horse and who also designed graphically the above-mentioned photograph campaign.

 

Thanks to the contracted partnerships of the zoo with media subjects such as: Czech television, Czech radio, Ringier publishers – the newspaper Blesk, 24 hodin and the  ABC magazine, Egmont publishers of magazines for children, Palace Cinemas, Seznam (a new contract) and euroAWK  we managed to realise in this year successful advertising campaigns that were focused namely on these main aims:

● high attendance rates

● promotion of the newly opened expositions

● promotion of the breeding successes of the zoo

● promotion of the programmes and cultural events in the zoo

In the autumn of 2006 we signed a beneficial reciprocal contract on co-operation with the cable TV stations Spektrum and HBO. On our side we provided the educational centre for one day and prepared a presentation event in order to promote the new series on natural sciences, the Spektrum and HBO televisions will provide the broadcasting time for 100 advertising spots in the spring of 2007 and blurbs of the Prague zoo before the programmes focused on natural sciences.

 

Trojan card

In co-operation with the Prague Botanical Garden and Gallery of the City of Prague (Troja chateau) we realised the project called Trojan card and the advertising campaign in order to support this project (billboards, citylights, leaflets). The Trojan card enabled the holder to visit once each of the three participating institutions in the time from 1^st April to 30^th September 2006. It was prepared in three price alternatives (adults, children up to 16 years of age and families). Altogether 50 711 Trojan cards were sold in the season of 2006 and 123 769 individual visits were realised.

 

Marketing

MAIN AND MEDIA PARTNERS OF THE PRAGUE ZOO IN 2006

Company	Fulfilment in CZK (incl. VAT)
Komerční banka plc	1 188 740
Coca-Cola Beverages ČR Ltd.	929 356
Plzeňský Prazdroj plc	1 190 000
Opavia - LU plc	1 225 000
Schöller Ltd.	800 000
RMC	357 000	Inclusion
Ringier ČR plc	1 275 243	Inclusion
Egmont ČR Ltd.	1 082 000	Inclusion

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More articles in ... Annual report 2006

• The economic report
• Breeding - Introduction
• Breeding - Birds
• Breeding - Mammals (except ungulates)
• Breeding - Mammals (ungulates)
• Breeding - Przewalski´s Horse
• Breeding - Veterinary care
• Breeding - CITES Centre
• Breeding - In-situ projects
• Breeding - Reptiles
• Operation and maintenance
• Construction activities
• The staff