Director´s view

Director´s view
Director´s view
Aerial view of the base in the Valley of Monasteries, with the South Monastery Creek in the background. Photo by Miroslav Bobek

Whenever we release in western Mongolia Przewalski’s horses transported from Europe, I experience a feeling of satisfaction. Of course… However, I had a similar feeling also last week, when we returned to the East of Mongolia, the Valley of Monasteries, after half a year.

Photo: Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo

I have collected some photos of butterflies during my walks around the zoo. When I looked at them yesterday, I realized that it is a decent collection and includes some very rare species. Even the experts, who determined the relevant species, refer to a few shots from Sklenářka in their reports.

Photo: Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo

In Darwin Crater we have recently introduced Winkleigh, the wombat female, to the public. And now we also have a contemporary of dinosaurs in this exhibit. It is Wollemia nobilis, whose unbelievable story began to unfold in front of the eyes of people all over the world less than thirty years ago.

Photo: Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo

When I left my office to watch the couple of hamerkops that were tirelessly carrying material to their already gigantic nest in the aviary under the cliff, Helena Růžičková’s replica from the well-known Czech comic film Sun, Hay and Strawberries came to my mind: “If you build an extension, we’ll add a whole floor!”...

Przewalski’s Horses. Photo: Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo

“200 km straight, then a mild curve to the left, again 200 km straight, right turn and after another 50 km we will stop for the night,” I wrote home with only a little exaggeration when we were heading by cars to the “Golden Steppe” Altyn Dala after the afternoon flight to Kostanay in northern Kazakhstan. The following...

Photo: Miroslav Bobek

It was an unbelievable paradox. During my journey to Cameroon, I received news about the progress of the pangolin female Šiška and at the same time I was daily seeing pangolins in street stalls and on markets or cooked in local restaurants… Pangolins have been strictly protected in Cameroon for many years, however the trade...

Šiška, Photo: Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo

For many years I had a wish, which I rather did not want to tell anybody about. It seemed so immodest and unrealistic to me.

Picture: Colonel Zelinka perfectly captured the look and functioning of Prague Zoo in the 1930s. Petr, the hippo, is depicted here with the keeper in the original house of pachyderms, which used to be at the place of today’s lemur exhibit. The headquarters of the zoo are in the background. Source: the collections of the Austrian Film Museum

Thirteen films, which found their way to us from the Austrian Film Museum, provided us with a great deal of information about the look and functioning of Prague Zoo in the 1930s. Even more exciting is the discovery that there probably were – or still are – many more of these films. Perhaps up to twenty-one! We know that...

Red-legged Golden Orb-web Spider in new gorilla house — Dja Reserve, Photo: Petr Hamerník

It was a bit of a provocation from me. I let people vote on Twitter on whether to release nephilas in the jungle in our new gorilla house – The Dja Reserve. What an idea! Although the voting ended in a tie, otherwise reasonable people were writing angry posts in the discussion about toxicity of these spiders or neurotoxicity...

Source: Pixabay

Last year around Christmas the prominent Lugash ethnographer Charles Litton stayed in Czech Republic. Now I have received a draft of his scientific paper, which he titled “Christmas Fish: Tradition and Rituals in Czech Republic (Eastern Europe)”. Of course, I will remind him again that we are located in Central Europe, and I...