Director´s view

It was assumed to have been extinct or wiped out along with the giant sloths and armadillos or mastodons. Its scientific description was based on the remains found during the excavations of pre-Columbian cultures in the Argentinian part of Gran Chaca. That was back in 1930 and its scientific name, Catagonus wagneri, in Czech,...

This Saturday is World Migratory Bird Day. From the dozens of Czech migratory bird species, all of which are threatened to a greater or lesser extent, I get to choose one of them today: the European Turtle Dove, Czech Bird 2019.

In the same week that the main season began at Prague Zoo, we set off for Berlin’s Tierpark with Prťka (Midget).

Similar to a dragon, it hovered in the Cambrian seas by waving its body. It had large compound eyes, to help it search for trilobites, long appendages, a kind of claw, protruding from the front of the body, a circular, downward-pointing mouth with lamellar plates, for crushing prey, and a series of flaps along the body that,...

Finally they’re here! The “venerable frogs from Lake Titicaca” came to Prague Zoo and I saw with my own eyes how truly exceptional they really are. Soon, you too will be able to see them for yourself. Our “venerable turnip”, the Czech name for this wonderful amphibian, will be presented to you at our new Titicaca...

In the belief that World Pangolin Day has already entered public awareness and that the media would provide information about it in copious amounts, I devoted the last Director’s View to the recent birth of a male giraffe. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Despite the fact that just four days before, the...

After climbing 565 stairs in the Indian town of Tirukalukundram, we reached the top of the mountain, which features a Hindu temple complex known as the Eagle or Vulture Temple. This has gained fame outside of the state of Tamil Nadu because it was on these cliffs, with a broad view of the surrounding countryside, that the...

My fairy tales featuring gorillas from Prague Zoo were written for my children years ago. Later, they reached many other Czech children in book form. In the end, however, it was in Central Africa that they celebrated their greatest success. Twenty thousand copies of Gorilla Fairy Tales – some of which were written by Tereza...

In the last issue of the journal The Science of Nature, we published a paper summarizing the results of our research on how people evaluate the beauty of the mammals in Prague Zoo. Beauty here is related solely to appearance, with no consideration given to movement or any other activities of a given species or the presence of...