Out of interest, and conscious of not wanting to derail the thread completely, but would you have a ranking of the Czech zoos you did visit (the listed ones I guess)? Would be quite interesting to see how they compare in your opinion.
Oof, difficult to say. A lot of them have both good and bad qualities. I overall really like Jihlava for example, but their cat house is terrible. If I had to rank them right now
(note that it's been 5 years since I visited Brno, Zlin and Ostrava so they're not as fresh in my memory as the others)
1. Prague. Easy. Best zoo ever.
2. Pilsen. I might be somewhat overrating this zoo because of their collection. Not all of their enclosures are good. Madagascar house for example is great for species, but is pretty subpar space-wise. But with so many pavillions and a focus on smaller, lesser known species, it has to rank high.
3. Dvur Kralove. Not much bad things to say except I don't really understand their 'rotation' policy. Also in the low season there's a lot of species off display. I might rank Dvur #2 if I'd only consider the high season, which doesn't start until May which is quite late.
4. Zlin. Zlin offers a lot of great stuff. Nice enclosures, interesting species, great tropical house. Great gelada enclosure, some nice aviaries.
Good focus on south-American species which is a plus. Not really any bad enclosures.
Honestly all of these are great zoos in my opinion. Now let's get to the good but not great zoos.
5. Jihlava. I like Jihlava, but I can't love it for one simple reason; the cat house. It's bad, really bad, and it doesn't need to be. Just get rid of some species (there's plenty of cat species in the zoo) and improve conditions for the remaining ones. There are a few other enclosures in the zoo that are also on the small side, like sand cat/fennec and Persian leopard. This is too bad because Jihlava offers a lot of good stuff too, like the small monkey house, gibbon enclosure and sun bear enclosure. Jihlava also has multiple pavillions which is always a plus.
6. Ostrava. Like Jihlava, Ostrava also has a mix of good and bad. I remember the lion and leopard as well as the monkey enclosures being too small and plain in this zoo, but also a fantastic enclosure for bears and a modern Chimpanzee house.
7. Usti nad Labem. With the orangutans and elephants now gone, ywo of the biggest issues of this zoo are no more. That leaves the other primate enclosures (old, small cages), and the tiny Geoffroy's cat cage as the bad parts. Otherwise, this zoo is pretty good. The carnivore house is well done, even though not all of the enclosures are equally good. I really liked the sun bear, the otter, the jackal and the penguin enclosure. The exotarium is pretty good, too as is the terrarium. Most of the enclosures in the upper part of the zoo are simple but spacious. The new Southeast Asia house is really cool (the old elephant house)
8. Brno. I had a lot of rain during my visit to Brno, so I might be more negative that I'd be if I had a sunny day. Brno didn't really do it for me. I liked their tiger enclosure and their eagle aviary, but disliked their chimpanzee and polar bear enclosures for example. A lot of this zoo was pretty simple, and not much really stood out. But again the bad weather was probably a part of why I didn't enjoy this zoo as much as I might have.
9. Decin. Small, but overall not bad except for a few enclosures. Located on a wooded hill with lots of European species, with some cool exotics thrown in. Not a lot of stuff to see indoors, which was a pity as I visited Decin on a rainy morning.
Only one I'd rank as bad
10. Liberec. Lots of bad enclosures, too little good things. Gave me the impression not much has changed here in years, even though I had never been here before.
Zajedz is a hard one to rank because of how small it is. Also, I got a private tour that took me behind the scenes, so I have very fond memories of this zoo that might cloud my judgement. Objectively speaking, I feel like the zoo is ok. Some parts good (with one fantastic small reptile/frog/bird mixed South-American enclosure) some parts not that great (some of the lemur enclosures)
Viscachas live near baboons and meerkats.
Tigers are being phased-out. The whole house will belong only to lions.
Glad to read the tigers are on phase-out, especially since they keep white tiger(s? I think I saw only one)
I saw the meerkats and baboons, I didn't see visacha's or any signage for them. I did see an empty enclosure, maybe that's were they are/used to be.
