Prague Zoo
I went from the airport straight to the zoo on my first morning in Prague. I decided to travel by taxi to save time as the zoo had opened before my flight had even landed. On arrival I was told that my luggage was too big for the lockers at the entrance, and the information desk refused to help in any way. Rather than losing out on the morning which I’d worked hard to add to the itinerary, I tried and managed to squeeze everything into two large lockers.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the zoo. On paper I should love it, but a number of reviews and recent cautions led me to lower my expectations. I was also aware that I had planned to visit at quite an awkward time for the zoo.
The weather was quite gloomy but I had a pleasant visit. I really really liked the zoo.
Unfortunately more of the zoo had been closed than had been let on by email. I think I’d have been a bit more disappointed had I started with the previously flooded parts of the zoo. But luckily my first major exhibit was the Indonesian Jungle. I didn’t see any orang-utans, but their enclosures seemed reasonable. What really impressed me was the nocturnal area. Almost every enclosure houses a living treasure. From dorcopsis to echidnas, it’s an amazing display of some very nice wildlife. I would have loved for places like London to have the same calibre of species on display, and I hope future exhibits in European zoos start taking some inspiration from these inventories.
Most of the large exhibits are quite new (built roughly within the last 10? Years). The zoo therefore feels quite modern in many areas, but there’s plenty which could be improved in each exhibit.
In a lot of the zoo, the public is made to feel quite distant from the animals. There’s a glass viewing panel in the elephant house which looks out over an enormous hall, but if there were elephants inside they’d likely be very far away. It might be a nice house from an elephant’s perspective though.
Nowadays the number of zoo exhibits which trigger feelings of awe in normal visitors seem to be decreasing. Fewer lions are made to roar on command and humans don’t ride as many elephants to get a sense of their size. I actually wasn’t a great fan of the distant viewing of the giraffes, but loved how close the public could get (at ground level through the windows of the giraffe house) and have to look up to be absolutely dwarfed by these giants. The high outdoor viewing platforms for the savannah exhibit might otherwise have distorted any sense of scale.
I could have done with a few more hours and a backstage guide for Prague. Although I was granted very limited access, I keep remembering more and more species I didn’t see. Coleto (locked in all afternoon) and black-eared catbird are among those at the top of the list (I saw a silhouette which must have been a catbird – nothing else fits - but I’m not counting it.
).
I look forward to returning once everything’s back to normal.
