ZOO Plzeň Plzen zoo news

Mickey said:
Again, depends on what you like the most
They're home to a lot of one-of-a-kind species as well as others not so unique but still rare
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Thank you all for your help. Google suggests the walk is 45 minutes. I'll do that.

I'll download the Annual report for 2023 (I believe there is an inventory in that) but are there any big new arrivals this year?
 
Rhinoceros said:
Thank you all for your help. Google suggests the walk is 45 minutes. I'll do that.
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It's a little quicker than that - the route planner on Google seems to be forcing an unnecessary dog-leg at the very start which adds another 5 minutes or so - but its a very pleasant walk in any case.
 
Plzen doesn´t really have any exhibits that would wow you but I like its general ambiente anyway. A visit is more about species hunting (both for animals and plants).

Highlights: venomous snakes (chimpanzee house), hoofstock around Sonora (Tula elk...), small mammals (lion house), Madagascar house, birds inside rhino house (bird-of-paradise), aviaries in Asian garden

Exhibits that are easy to miss:
- Mitschells monitors inside toilet corridor (next to food kiosk/ spurred tortoise)
- masked civets behind red panda
- small reptiles inside succulent plant greenhouse
- Siberian wooden hut (some people dont realise visitors can enter it)
- Fish Ark - a single aquarium room hidden under farm (near otters and donkey)
- Underground World - on path left from Chinese pavilion

Dont skip Amazonian house. It doesnt have kinkajous anymore but still some good species.

You can probably skip falconry show - species lineup is similar to average UK falconry center.

Dont spend time looking for a kivi. Nobody has ever seen him (bar his keepers).

I dont know any notable arrivals since last year. New are some African astrilds (aviary at entrance to rhino house) and few Asian songbirds (Asian garden).
 
Andreaghido said:
Are red and canadian lynx on show?
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Yes, both species are on show. Their exhibits are next to each other on the same path (when you climb up from Chinese leopards towards Sonora). At least 2 individuals are kept of each species. Only in case of young kittens, the female would be locked away for some time.

In other news, recent zoo´s FB post writes about few relocations of species within its areal:

- the former Cape fox exhibit in Lion house (last Cape fox died earlier this year) got 2.0 Garnetts galagos who used to live with aardwarks before.
- the aardvarks got mixed with Senegal galagos and southern tree hyraxes instead.
- the night exhibit in rhino house hosts 5 Northern Luzon cloud rats and 2 Palawan porcupines.
 
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Jana said:
Yes, both species are on show. Their exhibits are next to each other on the same path (when you climb up from Chinese leopards towards Sonora). At least 2 individuals are kept of each species. Only in case of young kittens, the female would be locked away for some time.

In other news, recent zoo´s FB post writes about few relocations of species within its areal:

- the former Cape fox exhibit in Lion house (last Cape fox died earlier this year) got 2.0 Garnetts galagos who used to live with aardwards before.
- the aardvarks got mixed with Senegal galagos and southern tree hyraxes instead.
- and night exhibit in rhino house hosts 5 Northern Luzon cloud rats and 2 Palawan porcupines.
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thanks a lot
 
Jana said:
Yes, both species are on show. Their exhibits are next to each other on the same path (when you climb up from Chinese leopards towards Sonora). At least 2 individuals are kept of each species. Only in case of young kittens, the female would be locked away for some time.

In other news, recent zoo´s FB post writes about few relocations of species within its areal:

- the former Cape fox exhibit in Lion house (last Cape fox died earlier this year) got 2.0 Garnetts galagos who used to live with aardwards before.
- the aardvarks got mixed with Senegal galagos and southern tree hyraxes instead.
- and night exhibit in rhino house hosts 5 Northern Luzon cloud rats and 2 Palawan porcupines.
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Thank you for this translation- Google Translate still can't cope with Czech animal names...
 
Mickey said:
When did Plzen lose their musk oxes?
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2019. At the beginning of that year, the zoo had a pair - male Loki and female Quengel. Then female died highly pregnant. And the male was sent to Copenhagen by decision of the EEP. Musk oxes did overall pretty bad at Plzen. In all 21 years the zoo kept them, 4 calves were born but none survived and 5 adult musk oxes died due to various reasons.

The empty musk oxes exhibit was first filled with yaks who were later replaced by golden takins.
 
The night African house has new opening hours. Closed till 9am. Daylight 9am-10am. Darkness starting at 10am.
Source - FB

The zoo seems to no longer accept casual requests for backstage tours. They´d got too many this summer, it overloaded the staff so it´s axed indefinitely.
Source - ZTL Forum

The zoo entrusted a german company to create a study to rebuid the old house on the newly-acquired land (behind bears) into jellyfish exhibit. The study will be finished in November and probably serve to make decision if the zoo will go ahead with it.
(I personally doubt an intend to exhibit jellyfish in the most remote part of the zoo, 99% of visitors will ignore it. Chomutov lucked in incorporating jellyfih tanks directly inside the entrance building where 100% visitors have to go through it, it worked for them.)

The zoo also prepaires construction documentation for a southamerican aviary and something called Pantanal. It wont be anything big (judging by allocated funds) but I haven´t seen it mentioned in either annual report or on socials yet.
Source - registry of contracts
 
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Jana said:
The zoo entrusted a german company to create a study to rebuid the old house on the newly-acquired land (behind bears) into jellyfish exhibit.
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Interesting, I stumbled across various plans and ideas for new part of zoo, never for this one.
Pantanal sounds interesting, whatever that shall be (maybe some reconstruction/refurbishment of paddocks for capybaras etc?)
 
xmoose said:
Pantanal sounds interesting, whatever that shall be (maybe some reconstruction/refurbishment of paddocks for capybaras etc?)
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Funilly, my first idea was exactly the same - refurbishment for a more visual-friendly presentation of capybaras. Simply based on their tictoc popularity among adolescents (a hard to reach group for a classic zoo with exception of heavilly-discounted school field trips).
 
There were some rumors about giant anteaters and tamanduas the past years (For clarification, if they start with anteaters, they want both of them). But it wouldn't be Plzen, if they don't squeeze in some birds and herps.
 
Jana said:
The zoo seems to no longer accept casual requests for backstage tours. They´d got too many this summer, it overloaded the staff so it´s axed indefinitely.
Source - ZTL Forum
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That's a shame, but understandable as staff cannot go around pampering every person who wants a BTS tour and have arguably better things to do.

Do you know if by casual they mean a person showing up and asking for a tour or any form of unpayed tour?
I'd gladly pay for a BTS tour at Plzen (or any zoo for that matter).
 
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