Director´s view

Altogether 1,043 young of reptiles, birds and mammals have been born or hatched during 2024. It is not so much about their total number, but rather the exceptionality of many of them. Only a few zoological gardens can boast of three ape babies in one year, and no other zoo in Europe has raised a second pangolin baby. However,...
The area of the Strictly Protected Area Great Gobi A in southwestern Mongolia is comparable with Switzerland. It is a deserted, remote part of the world, but for years we have been participating here in protection of the wild camel. An uninformed layman would probably not be able to tell it apart from the domestic Bactrian...
Five-month-old pangolin female Connie hasn’t even noticed the special diluted mixture. She even walked through it in the plastic feeding box and smeared it on the bottom. She thus clearly illustrated the big problem that we had been struggling with for weeks: we could not graduate her from the mother’s milk to the food of...
Porcupine’s spines are an item in demand, weather as a souvenir, or a material for fishing floats. However, when I visited the Archives of the City of Prague, I discovered to my surprise that the restorers also use them when cleaning the bindings of old books. Lo and behold! I immediately offered that our zoo would become...
This time I missed Humboldt penguins in their most noticeable courtship, part of which is a loud honking. I have, however, taken a lot of photos of the individual pairs collecting material for nest linings and showing affection to each other. The head keeper Kuba Mezei then identified them to me, so it came out that I also took...
The trucks raced through the steppe, raising high clouds of dust behind them, along the improvised road, which the grader dug for them a few days ago. The moment when three Przewalski’s horses, loaded on their decks, would be able to leave the crammed transport crates after more than thirty hours was approaching. At that...