News

News
The ribbon cutting ceremony in front of the Dja Reserve. From right. Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib, Deputy Mayor Jana Plamínková, actor couple Petr Štěpánek and Zlata Adamovská, singer Lucie Bílá, Prague Zoo’s director Miroslav Bobek, football player Karel Poborský, Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský. Photo by Khalil Baalbaki, Prague Zoo

The Dja Reserve in Prague Zoo opened its gates to the public today. Visitors can now set off on a journey through the Cameroonian rainforest, where they will meet vervet monkeys, guerezas, fruit bats and, of course, western lowland gorillas. A new gorilla couple - the male Kisumu and the female Duni, daughter of our beloved Moja...

Last Friday afternoon, the CASA military plane that brought us the female gorilla Duni from Spain landed at Prague-Kbely airport. Another big step had been successfully completed – and we have to thank the Air Force of the Czech Army and the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic for the invaluable help they gave us.

Duni in Cabárceno in July 2022. So far, it is not possible to take pictures of her in Prague due to the quarantine conditions. Photo: Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo

To kick off with, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my colleagues, especially Jarda Šimek, Pavel Brandl, Roman Vodička and Martin Vojáček, as well as the command of the Czech Air Force and the 24th Air Transportation Base at Prague-Kbely, the general staff of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic and Ivan...

Male Kisumu (pictured left) and female Duni. Photo: Petr Hamerník a Khalil Baalbaki, Prague Zoo

I am sending this article to the editorial board from a three-hundred-kilometre-long journey to Schmiding Zoo in Upper Austria. We are going there to pick up Kisumu, who will become the silverback male in Prague Zoo’s new gorilla house. Our small convoy includes two air-conditioned vans. Kisumu will be travel in his transport...

The new gorilla pavilion, which also has a new entrance to the Prague Zoo, on an aerial photograph from the Hrachovka homestead. Photo: Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo

There are precisely 25 days until the opening of the Dja Reserve – Prague Zoo’s new gorilla house. This will be the culmination of many years of hard work, which has taken a large part of our lives.

Eda the Cape fur seal is now used to a complete veterinary examination. Pictured here at the dental check with head keeper Jakub Mezei. Photo Oliver Le Que, Prague Zoo

Under the careful supervision of Prague Zoo’s keepers, Eda the three-year-old male Cape fur seal has already mastered useful veterinary training such as getting into the transport crate and letting the keepers check his teeth, eyes and abdomen. He has also learnt to use the slide and greet the enthusiastic spectators with a...

Hutia babies are active all day long. Visitors can find them above the Indonesian Jungle, just a few steps away from the otter enclosure. Photo Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

Prague Zoo is full of youngsters, not only in spring, but also in mid-summer. The cavorting of the hutia triplets keeps visitors of all ages entertained and the newly hatched flamingos are already taking gawky steps towards the water. From the breeding point of view, the additions of East Asian fauna - mythical-sounding gorals...

Mountain Pygmy-possum. Photo: Miroslav Bobek

High up in Kosciuszko National Park, my Australian colleagues showed me the typical habitat of a very small, extremely interesting and endangered marsupial – the Mountain Pygmy-possum (Burramys parvus). It was a scree slope formed from huge boulders. The Burramys (as it is also known) spends most of its time under the surface...

The cub is currently learning to drink breast milk on its own. It will be dependent on milk for the next ten months, but in four months it should be able to try adult food. Photo Barbora Dobiášová, Prague Zoo

The long-expected baby aardvark was born in Prague Zoo just after 9 am on Sunday. The three-day-old cub is suckling from its mother, Kvída, and, according to the keepers, it is healthy and active. Just after birth it weighed 1,450 grams and measured 54 cm in length, which is a common birth weight and size for an aardvark.

A pair of corroboree frogs. Photo by Miroslav Bobek

David Hunter invited us to his home in Albury, in the foothills of the Australian Alps. I was particularly taken by the unusual decorations in his living room. Imagine pouring lead into water – then enlarging the resulting formations to half or three quarters of a metre.