A wet start: Zoo Ohrada/Hluboká nad Vltavou
I was eager to go to my nearest zoo once I had unpacked everything in my room, but there was one problem: I came to Czechia right in the week where
it didn't stop raining for a week straight and National Alarm for floods was launched, and lots of people were worried that 2002 would come all over again.
That didn't stop me, a zoo-hungry nerd used to starvation of visits lasting years (I don't know how any of the younger folks can manage to plan multiple trips in a year, but that might just be me living on an island and having to take a plane to go anywhere).
So I picked a train to Hluboká which, unsurprisingly, was only 7 minutes long and costed me 14CK, less than a Euro! The
ISIC card is very useful for getting this kind of discounts, I encourage anyone that can to take it, it usually costs 13€ but could cost less if you're affiliated with a University, I payed mine 10€ in CK.
From the train station in Hluboká to the zoo it was a nice 20 min walk in pleasant forests, which for me are exotic given I'm used to Mediterranean macchia and other types of trees.
There was just one problem: being used to a
Mediterranean climate, I rarely need fully closed shoes and the ones I had I left at home in fear I would over pack and thought I would buy a new pair when I had the time, but that was obviously less important than the zoo, am I right?
You see the shoes I had on were transpirant shoes, so air could flow in, a "breathing" type of shoe if you may: too bad it can also
drink!
And so going to the zoo I could feel my mistake as it also slowed me down, these weren't light shoes, they were pretty big for being comfortable walking shoes.
And so I went to the zoo with a distinguishable "
flop flop" sound from the water collecting in my shoes, imagine
Squidward from SpongeBob walk-sound.
Then I finally came to the zoo, the cashier lady was surprised someone showed up in this terrible weather, and after asking for a ticket she asked me if I was German, a foreigner, which would explain a visit; I replied no and then she gave me my ticket and brochure.
So it was here, my first visit in a zoo in Czechia, how exciting that was!
I didn't know where to lay the egg (Italian saying, I'm sure it exists somewhere else? It means one is too excited to decide or that someone is indecisive) so after emptying my shoes from the accumulated water I started with the first thing I saw, wallabies in the Australian area by the entrance.
That visit was very
wet, but I marched forward in my loud stompers and never stopped except in the Reptile House and Mata-Mata because they were heated indoors and I was getting my feet warmed a little after the cold cold rain.
That night I had to dry those shoes and let me tell you it didn't take less than
45 minutes minimum.
After that I had only 2 other visits, one alone right after the rain week stopped and one with new found international friends, so I was merciful on them and did not run through the zoo because it was already my 3rd visit.
Overall the zoo is very nice, compact and consistent throughout its exhibits: it has smaller areas for few exotic regions and then the rest is dedicated to the true focus of the zoo, native
Paleartic fauna: if I had to choose their 3 strong points it would be their
owl section, their
ant section (not really Palearctic but still a strenght) and their
native birds section.
The zoo is
very local with their conservation work, they have an animal rescue facility which as far as I understood operates in all South Bohemia (they even held a charity event in the university I was staying, I donated something without a cookie in return because of personal reasons), they have several release programs and the exotic animals seem to be mainly for population management rather than personal amusement like sometimes happens.
They do have a few exotic rarities don't think them wrong, one just has to take a glimpse on ZooTierListe, and I wanted to see the genet so much that on my first visit, when I saw an open gate that was very close to some off-show aviaries, my morbid curiosity almost got the better of me, but seeing the keepers running back and forth all over the zoo I decide they didn't need a manchild to disturb them.
The zoo makes the most out of the space that it has gotten and it shows, some enclosures are nice and spacious for the inhabitants, others are a bit on the small side and others are scratching adequate, but all are well planted (where plants are to be found) and naturalistic to my taste.
Highlights of the zoo I would say are the
Bohemian forest, the
Mata-Mata pavilion, the
Reptilarium, the
waterbirds aviary and the
Owl enclosures.
The Mata-Mata pavilion, an indoor jungle, was apparently done in collaboration and curated by
Plzeň? At least that's what I grasped by the introductory sign at the entrance.
In some places they even have some black-and-white photos of the past enclosures in place of the current ones, to show how far they've come since then and a nice bit of
history.
Enclosure size is not the only place where they cut some slack though: the fence for wallabies is way too short, but the keepers probably know they won't get far even if they escape, but what striked me one day was a Patas monkey running free on the top of the concrete fencing that perimetered their outdoor enclosure, I warned some keepers that a monkey was on the loose and they just shrugged it and told me "
It happens often, no problem", right before I saw the young monkey going back to its troop; Czech keepers are another breed for sure.
And that is everything for Hluboká, unless I have forgotten something which I'll write later eventually, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did visiting this underrated gem in the deep Bohemian south.
.
)