Prague Zoo Praha Prague Zoo News 2025

Arrivals and births for January and February have been posted. Apart of already mentioned capuchins:

- male caracal from Jihlava (thus a new pairing is complete)
- 1.1 Egyptian jerboas and 1.1 Palawan leopard cats from Pilsen
- spanner barbs from Troja botanical garden (new species)
- 1,0 Visayan tarictic hornbill from Vogelpark Avifauna
- 0,1 white-crested laughtingtrush from Wilhelma Stuttgart
- 3.2 caiman lizards from Basel

- 4 moholi bushbaby cubs, black marsh turtles, 1x Pel´s fishing owl, 2x coletos, Edwards fig parrot, little pied cormoran, eastern wallaroo, 4 manned wolf cubs, 1 (litter?) bush dog cub, 0.1 beisa oryx

Source
 
Last edited:
Arrivals and births for January and February have been posted. Apart of already mentioned capuchins:

- male caracal from Jihlava (thus a new pairing is complete)
- 1.1 Egyptian jerboas and 1.1 Palawan leopard cats from Pilsen
- spanner barbs from Troja botanical garden (new species)
- 1,0 Visayan tarictic hornbill from Vogelpark Avifauna
- 0,1 white-crested laughtingtrush from Wilhelma Stuttgart
- 3.2 caiman lizards from Basel

- 4 moholi bushbaby cubs, black marsh turtles, 1x Pel´s fishing owl, 2x coletos, Edwards fig parrot, little pied cormoran, eastern wallaroo, 4 manned wolf cubs, 1 (litter?) bush dog cub, 0.1 beisa oryx

Source
I mentioned this in last year's thread, but it still blows me away just how much exciting news comes out of this remarkable zoo every month, and as a result how many massive headlines merit casual mentions. No public collection had ever bred a member of the Scotopelia genus until Prague saw success with Pel's Fishing-owls last year, and now it has once again been reduced to just one of many mentions in the zoo's monthly summaries. I am trying to imagine just how excited I would be if London or Whipsnade bred Coletos, Beisa, bushbabies or wallaroos, and yet at Prague such announcements are hardly out of the ordinary. It would be sufficient reason for an immediate visit to Regent's Park and several posts on this forum detailing my excitement.

I know very little about the structure of zoos and who is responsible for husbandry arrangements, so forgive me if I sound clueless or silly here, but with the amount of difficult to breed species that are born at Prague, many people there must be doing something right, and they deserve immense praise for it. If there have indeed been merganser chicks (not entirely sure what is meant by @HOMIN96 upthread by "all but confirmed," perhaps someone could link to the social media in question where he said this?), then that this another addition to the endlessly long list of major revelations at this zoo.
 
I mentioned this in last year's thread, but it still blows me away just how much exciting news comes out of this remarkable zoo every month, and as a result how many massive headlines merit casual mentions. No public collection had ever bred a member of the Scotopelia genus until Prague saw success with Pel's Fishing-owls last year, and now it has once again been reduced to just one of many mentions in the zoo's monthly summaries. I am trying to imagine just how excited I would be if London or Whipsnade bred Coletos, Beisa, bushbabies or wallaroos, and yet at Prague such announcements are hardly out of the ordinary. It would be sufficient reason for an immediate visit to Regent's Park and several posts on this forum detailing my excitement.

I know very little about the structure of zoos and who is responsible for husbandry arrangements, so forgive me if I sound clueless or silly here, but with the amount of difficult to breed species that are born at Prague, many people there must be doing something right, and they deserve immense praise for it. If there have indeed been merganser chicks (not entirely sure what is meant by @HOMIN96 upthread by "all but confirmed," perhaps someone could link to the social media in question where he said this?), then that this another addition to the endlessly long list of major revelations at this zoo.

I've had the pleasure of meeting the bird curator and going behind the scenes of the bird section - utterly incredible, like another entire zoo. I think the amount of space they have for offshow aviaries and the willingness to experiment (were they the first to innovate with BoP lekking aviaries?) must contribute hugely to their breeding successes.
 
No public collection had ever bred a member of the Scotopelia genus until Prague saw success with Pel's Fishing-owls last year, and now it has once again been reduced to just one of many mentions in the zoo's monthly summaries.

As a minor point of interest, London Zoo *could* have claimed this achievement 40 years ago, but chose (for admittedly good reason) to destroy all fertile eggs produced.
 
Could you please elaborate on why they chose to destroy those fertile eggs?

By the time their pair of Vermiculated Fishing Owl started to breed, it had been realised they were actually a mixed-species pair (female Vermiculated and male Rufous Fishing Owl) - as such the eggs were destroyed to prevent a hybrid population from being formed.
 
By the time their pair of Vermiculated Fishing Owl started to breed, it had been realised they were actually a mixed-species pair (female Vermiculated and male Rufous Fishing Owl) - as such the eggs were destroyed to prevent a hybrid population from being formed.
Makes sense. Thank you!
 
A female Przewalski's horse was born on 27th February.
source
The foal received the name 'Dagina,' meaning 'Eastern Fairy,' a name selected by none other than the Mongolian president, Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh, on his visit to Prague earlier this month (the same visit in which the Wild Bactrian Camel memorandum was signed). She is the milestone 7,000th foal born in a European zoo (or at least recorded in the studbook), and the president symbolically entered her birth into the studbook himself. Mentioned on the zoo's website.
 
The foal received the name 'Dagina,' meaning 'Eastern Fairy,' a name selected by none other than the Mongolian president, Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh, on his visit to Prague earlier this month (the same visit in which the Wild Bactrian Camel memorandum was signed). She is the milestone 7,000th foal born in a European zoo (or at least recorded in the studbook), and the president symbolically entered her birth into the studbook himself. Mentioned on the zoo's website.
Is there an indication of when the bactrian camel will arrive?
 
Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus)...??? I assume You mean wild camel Camelus ferus that the ZZ Praha is looking to import from the Republic of Mongolia.

Links:
A) The wild camel, Camelus ferus – a genetically distinct critically endangered species | The Wild Camel Protection Foundation
B) Review of genetic diversity in Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) - PMC
Yes, you assumed correctly. Sorry for using common lexicon, I wasn’t aware that the terminology was incorrect!!
 
They are in the zoo already, unless I am mistaken...There should be a mention in the 2024 thread?

I would be shocked if it is anything else. The species is already at the zoo (arrived from Bristol in September last year), I don't know of any other animals from Ball's Pyramid that are kept in European zoos, and if I am not misremembering the plans for their public display in the zoo were an independent exhibit near the Terrrarium, which seeing as the Great Aviary is visible in the background, would align with the picture. I wonder how long until it is ready for the insects move in.

Quite a nice place to put it with Darwin Crater (another Australian exhibit, although of course for a very different part of Australia) right opposite. And how many other zoos have built detailed, small-scale replicas of an island for an educational feature for an insect display?!

Looks like Lord Howe Island Stick Insects go on show later this month: Instagram

:)
 
Back
Top