Director´s view

I was afraid that the Christmas of 2020 would be the first one in the entire history of Prague Zoo (and I include the war times), when the zoo would remain closed. But it didn’t mean that we would not prepare for Christmas. We decided that if we could not light up the Christmas tree in the presence of visitors, we would do it...

For many years now millions and millions of pangolins have been trafficked. It took a long time – and who knows if it’s not too late – for work to begin on giving them more effective protection. We are also trying to help with this. We have co-financed the Pangolarium in Laos and we intend to support...

The situation with covid-19 not only forced us to reduce Monday’s Prague Zoo Anniversary Celebration, during which we will reopen the Hippo House, but also to completely cancel the showing of the photo exhibition, The Beauty of Wild Horses, which shows the “Przewalski’s” in the wilds of Mongolia and China. Although it is...

Almost nine months have passed since Rachel Hogan and I sat in her office in the Primate Sanctuary in Mefou, Cameroon, planning the building of children’s accommodation. The children are brought to Mefou from the villages surrounding the Dja Biosphere Reserve by our Wandering Bus. Here, they take part in an educational...

On Sunday we named both our baby elephants. The daughters of Tamara and Janita, our Prague elephant princesses. I’d like to remind you that the first was born on March 27th, when the zoo had been closed for a fortnight, and the second on May 9th, when it had been reopened, but many restrictions still applied. Of course, right...

Yes, I’ve decided to build a hotel. An insect hotel. In the zoo we have a lot of insect hotels and inns, but now – as I’m writing this chapter – I’m going to build one with my own hands and place it in the garden of our cottage. So before leaving for the weekend I’m gathering material and tools. Also, I must not...

It was before “corona”. While on holiday in Palolem, in the Indian state of Goa, we went for a walk along the beach after dinner. Fish and seafood vendors had set up simple stalls. I photographed some northern red snappers and several barracudas, and then I was surprised to see that two sharks barely forty centimetres long...

In a few days, it will be half a year since Dave Schaap sent me a photo from Tasmania’s Hobart Airport. It was of a concrete runway with two carts in the foreground. A sign above one of them – with four wooden crates – read: Ready to load. “At last!” I cried out in joy.

Next Saturday we’ll open Prague Zoo’s newly built exhibition, dedicated to Tasmania and Australia. When the architects designed it, they were inspired by the fact that we had chosen its location at the bottom of a slope that is crowned by an artistic rendition of a meteorite. They did some research and discovered that...