Judging by ZTL, these papugarnia seem to be typically Polish. Do you have any idea why that is?
I dont have clear idea why. I can offer just some mussings. And comparison of Poland vs Czechia/Slovakia.
So, it´s clear that papugania clearly found its niche in Poland, it´s highly profitable bussiness there.
Poland has been relatively poor for long time then its economy shyrocketed in last 1-2 decades. People with a lot more money and free time want entertainment. Internal Polish tourism catering to locals explodes (to a point that Poland became trendy tourist destination for Czechs cca since covid). Traditional Polish zoo scene - a dozen old municipal zoos and 2 public aquaria - have not kept pace with demand (minus Wroclaw and Lodz recently) so like a million small private animal-related establishments (minizoos, petting farms, mini reptile shows etc.) sprouted from nothing and became economically viable. Papugarnia hits a sweet spot - it´s legal form of animal husbandry in Poland, animal rights people almost dont exist there and people are willing to pay a lot for close contact with animals. So after initial success of 1-2 places, more and more people quickly copy this concept, opening new papugarnias. Polish people always were much more bussines-savy than we were.
Why it doesnt exist in Czechia and Slovakia? It does but in very rudimentary form and survives basicaly illegaly and in very small numbers and it always runs into opposition by governmental agencies and also part of public.
In Czechia, we have Raj Papousku in Osnice (Prague south suburbs), its owner officially registered this place as a rescue station for parrots, but it had been judged to be a zoo without licence, zoo licence request was not approved, now authorities try to close it and issue perriodical fines. In Prague city, a place called Království papoušků operates, you can rent private session with few tame macaws in an apartment for ca 200 eur/hour, it keeps rather low profile and didnt draw ire of authorities (yet). There also used to be various groups offering tame parrots or birds of prey for photos in streets of touristic center of Prague, but city issued a regulation that prohibits such activity and local police is effective in enforcing this rule (because locals complain and call police in large numbers every time they see it, thus police is forced to move quickly to not get harrased by angly locals).
Slovakia has a bussiness group called Arakovo, they used to rent rooms in big shopping malls in Bratislava etc, they also offer tame parrots for photos in front of zoo Bojnice gate during summers, but all shopping malls evicted them already (due to complains by people and angry officials) so this group now travels each weekend to different events where they get hired. Both Slovak and Czech vet authorities make controls at such events and issue a fine after a fine, for animal abuse. Lets see how long they can survive till their birds get confiscated.
Do Czech and Slovak tourists visit Polish papugarnia places? Yes they do, in good numbers, and many are over moon over possibility of close contact with parrots. There are several papugarnias and petting caffes (with capybaras, squirrels, lemurs etc.) situatued just behind Polish / Czech and Polish Slovak border, targeting tourists. Funilly, sort of like we have brothels and casinos along Czech / German and Czech / Austrian border, catering mainly to tourists from there.
