Prague Zoo Praha Animal news from zoo Praha

OrangePerson said:
Mawar has gone to Prague but Upita was found to be infertile, last I saw Padang was with both of them and Upita seemed to be getting on well with Mawar's young son.
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So have Jersey got another female to replace Mawar?:confused:

Its a pity these Uk bred Sumatrans(Padang and Mawar) couldn't have gone to found a new colony somewhere in the UK- we are ridiculously short of Sumatran Orangs nowadays- only at Chester & Jersey.
 
Thanks for the link.

According to the video, the new ele (indoor)exhibit looks like a prison full of huge metall bars and concrete. Hope that's a wrong impression.

Does Prague keeping their elephants in hands-off?
 
Elephant barns generally have a lot of thick metal bars and poles in order to safely handle earth's largest land mammal... From what I saw on the video, there's an area of sand for the elephants to play in, as well as a temperature controlled pool. Both should do wonders for the elephants joints.
It looks amazing! State of the art!
Any word on when Douanita and Tanya are arriving?
 
From newspapers current Prague 1.2 should move in this month and the 0.2 should arrive in May. The building should be closed for public till 2013 though, so elephants should be visible only outside. Apparently they will finish visitors parts, the views, gardening etc. I guess they will welcome no disturbance from visitors till they get females succesfully together as well.

Looks like protected contact but if I remember correctly from previous clips, they built it the way they can switch to othewr methods as well. Bars are needed, elephants are elephants, there are windows for checks of various oparts of their bodies.

On somewhat related note, the first surviving czech calf, Rashmi in Ostrava is celebrating one year of age these days and does very well apparently. Her adult sister should get another chance to have a healthy calf soon.

Edit:
here is the release on zoo page (no english version though, translator should work just fine I guess) http://www.zoopraha.cz/cs/o-zoo/novinky/predstavujeme-novy-sloninec

notice the terrible brand new logo, quite a drop from what they used before (more about the logo can be found on english version of the site).
 
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docend24 said:
notice the terrible brand new logo, quite a drop from what they used before (more about the logo can be found on english version of the site).
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I´m with you on the new logo... I loved the old ones! (the ones with Przewalski´s horse/horses.) I don´t really understand the need to change the logo like this. It looks sooo... I don´t know...cheap and mainstreamy...

(For those of you interested in the evolution of Prague Zoo logo design, here is a nice little gallery: http://aktualne.centrum.cz/domaci/f...-let-podivejte-se-na-loga-prazske/?cid=739545 )
 
Well, as you are linking a czech site I guess you understand czech and know about the situation. For the others - there is a dispute betwen author of the great unique logo (7 on the Stefka's link) and the zoo had to halted using it by court decision. They chose to go with the interim logo (8) which to me worked well and they should keep using it. Instead after soem lame attempt to get a visual from public they went and pay for the one which is now the new logo. There is a long story about what each paw represents but it is just sad. Well, we will get used to it, but it is just a generic zoo logo, full of coulours for kids.
 
This thread was dead for some time, from recent news - the zoo got EEP for (Western) Egyptian Vulture running, they have kept the studbooks for a decade now and it is kind of trditional species being kept already in the 30's. They are now mixing few new birds to pair them up in addition to two already established pairs.

There are yet another class of Rotshild's giraffes' calves in the huge african panorama exhibit, this year 1.1. Sitatungas (in another paddock) are breeding well too, apparently fifth new calf was born few weeks ago.

Restart of beisas breeding - new male Lucius arrived from France, hopefully he will do his thing albeit being easily recognizable in herd because of one broken horn (no comment from zoo on that).

As in previous years, they are using proven Bearded vulture male to adopt a chick from Ostrava which should then be released to the wild. Prague's pair is too old to reproduce and as the female started refusing alien eggs last year, the zoo has used just the male to care for the chicks with no problems.

They are planning to build Amazonian (South American) themed complex in place of then obsolete pachderm house including jaguars, manatees and some rarely kept species like uakaris, we'll see how that will turn out.
 
There is a great clip about the Bearded vulture adoption. It is in czech even without it it provides some stunning pictures. They are explaining that there is a level of trust between them and the male who has been in the zoo for over 40 years now letting them to go there on the rock edge 7 metres high which would be otherwise out of question. The title says it is eight adopted chick already.

 
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And last but not least, somewhat older news, the world best reproducing female Komodo Dragon delivered her sixth clutch in January. Last two clutches were parthenogenetic though. Props to Velenský and his team!

 
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gorgeousingray said:
Elephant barns generally have a lot of thick metal bars and poles in order to safely handle earth's largest land mammal... From what I saw on the video, there's an area of sand for the elephants to play in, as well as a temperature controlled pool. Both should do wonders for the elephants joints.
It looks amazing! State of the art!
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State of the art????? That's ironic, isn't it?

That elephants are potentially dangerous is wellknown. But it is possible to built safe and - more or less - pretty looking/more natural looking indoor-exhibits with less (visible) metallic construction (e.g. Muenster, Rotterdam). Of course it is mostly cosmetic, but it has influence to the PAYING visitors... (They don't wanna see Big Cats or Bears in prison-like cages any longer, although they are dangerous as well)
 
zoomaniac said:
Of course it is mostly cosmetic, but it has influence to the PAYING visitors... (They don't wanna see Big Cats or Bears in prison-like cages any longer, although they are dangerous as well)
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I wouldn't want to see elephants or cats in a small heavily barred cage but an area with heavy bars that is just part of their living space is a different matter.
 
I believe that the video makes it look smaller than it actually is.
House - 1400 square meters, outdoor enclosure - 8681 square meters.
Floors are covered with a soft top layer and are also heated.
And it might look dull now, but it´s not opened yet, so various decorations might be added.. Well, we won´t know until next year, when we´ll see it on our own eyes. :-)

But they say it´s gonna be the best elephant habitat in Central Europe and I want to believe them.


docend24 said:
There is a great clip about the Bearded vulture adoption. It is in czech even without it it provides some stunning pictures. They are explaining that there is a level of trust between them and the male who has been in the zoo for over 40 years now letting them to go there on the rock edge 7 metres high which would be otherwise out of question. The title says it is eight adopted chick already.

Osmá adopce u orlosup? - YouTube
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Health and Safety - Bohemian Style :D

(Don´t get me wrong, I love the video and the level of trust between the male and keepers, it has this old-school and romantic touch.. But I can´t help to think that these practices are just accidents waiting to happen...It will work perfectly, until somebody slips and breaks his back - and the press will love it and look for somebody to blame..)
 
@OrangePerson: Well, but instead of most Big Cats and Bears, Elephants in Central Europe clima have to live a MUCH longer period of the year indoors!

@Stefka: Agree with the first part. Let's see when it is finished. Zoo Praha deserves the chance, no doubt. It is - imo - one of the best zoos in Europe and I can't wait to return(so maybe that explains why my expectations are so high and that I was disappointed after watching the video);)
 
I m very much looking forward to go there again in 1,5 weeks. Especially for the Brown dorcopsis and the Balabac Chevrotain. Does anyone from Czech Republic know if the Mount Apo Lorikeets (Trichoglossus johnstoniae) are on display or still behind the scenes?
 
Re: Elephant house - at the beginning, this building was planned to be off-show holding space. Only later, when the planning was quite developed, a window for visitors was added. It means they never planned to make it "visitors-eyes-friendly". There will be no fake rocks or plants, what you could see in the video is a final stage. Dissapointing? Yes, but it is too late to change anything, the elephants will move in next week.

RE: Bearded Vulture aviary - it is not the best or safest work place in a zoo. But it is quite an interesting aviary that saw the world first successfull parent-bred chick of Andean condor in zoos (around 1937 I think). It is planned to be demolished when the old Bearded Vulture male will die.

RE: Mount Apo Lorikeets - they are on display since last year.

Few news:
- The large cats house will be reopened on 1th of May, only the visitors´ space was renovated and 4 new terariums added.
- Southern Luzon giant cloud rats and the Balabac Chevrotain are on display now in the night section of Indonesian house.
- 2 Jaguarundis were born, Dalmatian and Great white Pelicans hatched.
 
Elephants, Douanita and Tanya have arrived in Praha today (from Rotterdam)
 
10 young Komodo Dragons are on there way out to Los Angeles Zoo from Praha in exchange for the recent import to Leipzig. One of the newly imported males from Leipzig will transfer to Praha in the near future
 
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