Director´s view

We received more than four thousand proposals through an online form, hundreds more in discussions on social networks and emails. And one name really caught our attention – Terry, in honour of the writer Terry Pratchett (1948–2015), the author of Discworld.

From one small video shot at the start of the spring closing, the Zoo Shorts project has rapidly developed into something that keeps the zoo open for its visitors, well at least virtually. Keepers took short videos on their phones capturing their wards and giving a behind the...

During 2020, I was taking photos of burned koalas in Victoria, Australia; our freshly born elephant baby; the orangutan baby; and photos of our zoo, closed due to COVID, from the ground as well as from the air, but for me this is the Photo of the Year. I know, it is not perfect. I took it by hand with a shutter speed of 1/40...

Statement from Prague Zoo’s director, Miroslav Bobek, on the birth of a baby Sumatran orangutan:

Our Scabbers was named by the keeper David Vala after the rat that plays an important role in the third Harry Potter book, the Prisoner of Azkaban. Scabbers in our zoo resembles a rat to a large extent and it gives a rather baldish impression. On top of that she is along with Potter’s Scabbers very, very old. It could be said...

Prague Zoo has gone through a series of ordeals and difficult periods. Even its bare existence was hanging in the balance. I think that it is worth looking back at what our predecessors were facing and how they braved past adversity. That’s why I also started looking for historical reports of hard times at Prague Zoo. And in...

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...