ZOO Plzeň Plzen zoo news

HOMIN96 said:
AFAIK, there should be still some animals who are bound to leave at a later date, the maneless didn't even arrive yet so there is no need to ship them out rapidly.
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Aaaand the day after I posted this, the zoo announced that the Zebra switcheroo is now almost finished.

In recent weeks Chapman's zebras left to following zoos: Spiššská Nová Ves (Slovakia), Dvorec (Cze) and Zoo Safari Borysew (Poland).

0,2 maneless zebras arrived at the beginning of this week from Borysew, male from the same zoo arrives today.

In other news 1,0 North-Chinese leopard arrived from Tierpark Stadt Haag
 
A "Pavilion of golden fish" has opened. That little abandoned house above birds of pray show has been demolished and built anew in Chinese style (I don´t like the end version really, looks fake, but thats me). It contains different domestic forms of Golden fish in Chinese-style pots. And an enclosure for Chinese crocodile lizards. The most notable improvement is a new visitor path leading up along the amphiteater. Instead of steep stairways, it´s now in form of serpentines that can be used by people with strollers.
 
1,0 White-striped dorcopsis is on show in former dingo enclosure.

Something about the goldfish house (pictures will be uploaded into the gallery in a while): Styled as if you would write "Asian architecture" into google image search, but I gotta say, I kinda like it. As @Jana said, the main improvement is the barrier-less access to the Asian Garden. Along the path there is a ton of plants and bushes planted, in true Plzen's fashion.

The building has essentially two not-connected levels. In the lower level is an exhibit for Chinese crocodile lizards (Shinisaurus crocodilurus) the terrarium itself is big and even though there was a lot of moisture on the glass hindering the view (that's why I don't have a photo of the terrarium itself) you could see that it gives lizards a lot of climbing and hiding opportunities. They have also a big pool available inhabited by 4 fish species (species seen in bold): Chinese barb (Barbodes semifasciolatus), White cloud mountain minnow (Tanichthys albonubes), Mackerel barb (Opsarius pulchellus) and Gold ring butterfly sucker (Sewellia lineolata). The terrarium looks nicely planted too but I couldn't tell if those plants are live or not through the moisture. The mock rock looked a bit weird too...

The upper level houses 4 different Goldfish morphs in porcelain vases. According to the zoo's press release, there are more vases on the way directly from China. Two more vases house Paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis) and Japanese rice fish (Oryzias latipes). Remaining vases have various plants planted in them (Budha's hand, orchids...). There are also posters about goldfish keeping.

Honestly, I would've liked it more if the fish would be in regular aquariums (it would also look much better I would say) but the positive is that if this setup won't work, the indoors can be easily redone to house something different.
 
HOMIN96 said:
Plzen's annual report is online
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So I´m reading the report and I´m having fun over article about history of maned wolf Manzan (who died 2020 at age of 17 years and thus a new longevity record for the species). This piece of text is ommited in English translation so I tried myself.

Although as parents were Manzan and Dominica unproblematic, we experienced several situations during both their litters - stressful, infarcted, comical, embarrassing, but also very instructive. First puppies born on November 25, 2006 received names starting with letter E, Emil, Eda and Erika. They did well and were soon recommended by breeding coordinator to move to others zoos. Emil left in July 2007 to the Děčín Zoo, the second Eda went in March 2008 to Bussolengo, Italy and as last Erika in April 2010 to the Kaunas Zoo in Lithuania. This is what the evidence says, but reality was a little more colourful.

Emil had to leave for Děčín, but while loading him into a transport box, we failed to read the identification chip and when the animal began to collapse during catching, we wanted to avoid anesthesia because we were still scared by a recent unfortunate event. What could happen anyway? The keepers identified the animal as Emil, the shipping box snapped shut and the male went to Děčín.

What a horror when we found out half a year later during the departure of our male Eda, who must had been put into anesthesia during loading into that shipping crate, that Emil is still in Pilsen! Our concerns went away and we put to sleep and read the chips of all animals. Erika was missing, who had been happily living for half a year in Děčín paired with a female Maya from Frankfurt. We immediately admitted the mistake to our colleagues from Děčín and began planning an exchange of animals. They, somewhat lacking collegiality and without warning, had thrown us to the media, which had a field day gladly describing our error to their readers.

We loaded Emil and went to Děčín with the right animal. There, after a fierce fight in which the wolves bit and destroyed the chip reader, we loaded our Erika and we went back to Pilsen. We found out that something is not right as soon as the female came out of the carriage box to the paddock. It was Maya from Frankfurt! Maned wolves are not easily recognizable from each other, but in this case it was clear at first glance. So in Děčín they now have the right male, but the wrong female, she is ranning in the Pilsen paddock. It was probably karma.

A phone call to Děčín again, and the preparation of another exchange. At the same time we received from them a request not to disclose the confusion to media. I admit that retaliation was tempting, but in the end the exchange was in complete secrecy, anyone can make mistakes. For us it was a great lesson, since that time no animal would leave the zoo without reading its chip properly.
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