Prague Zoo Praha Prague Zoo News 2022
- Thread starter JurassicMax
- Start date
Update on future exhibits by city council:
Wild horse stables/manul aviaries - optimistic version of completeness is summer 2023, realistic spring 2024.
Polar bears - documents for building permit will be submitted in next days, preliminary budget of 20 mio EUR, no set time plan yet
Wild horse stables/manul aviaries - optimistic version of completeness is summer 2023, realistic spring 2024.
Polar bears - documents for building permit will be submitted in next days, preliminary budget of 20 mio EUR, no set time plan yet
Wonder what comes next (probably pretty premature question as construction of these din´t even start yet...)
Rhinos? Some refurbishment of cat house? (actually, second maybe not needed, when first done? with could leopards getting new exhibit and their old paddocks avalible to other species kept there...) Asiatic bear exhibit, in place of current polar bear one? Old pachyderm house?*
So many possibilities...
*actually mentioned by director in some fb comment... dunno if it means that those spectacular Amazonia** with harpies and manatees be it...
** original plan for which I am excited like last ten years
Rhinos? Some refurbishment of cat house? (actually, second maybe not needed, when first done? with could leopards getting new exhibit and their old paddocks avalible to other species kept there...) Asiatic bear exhibit, in place of current polar bear one? Old pachyderm house?*
So many possibilities...
*actually mentioned by director in some fb comment... dunno if it means that those spectacular Amazonia** with harpies and manatees be it...
** original plan for which I am excited like last ten years
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Did the pangolins go on show today?
Fat-tailed dwarf lemur
Well-Known Member
Yes they did! Their new nicknames are Hugo and Fazolka (which is bean translated)
Zoo Praha představila veřejnosti luskoun
Zoo Praha představila veřejnosti luskoun
The whole orang family (adult male Pagy, female Mawar and two youngsters) escaped from their enclosure for some time, they found weak spot in net over their outside exhibit. Keepers succeeded in calling them back so they returned on their own and unharmed. The zoo will now spend some time repairing the stainless steel net and testing it against another escape. Orangs will stay indoors for next few weeks I guess.
EDIT: Few years back I witnessed an escape of part of the guereza family. The monkeys were climbing trees and roofs but staying close to their island. And then keepers arrived and basically started yelling at them. And the monkeys then jumped back onto their island.
EDIT: Few years back I witnessed an escape of part of the guereza family. The monkeys were climbing trees and roofs but staying close to their island. And then keepers arrived and basically started yelling at them. And the monkeys then jumped back onto their island.
Fat-tailed dwarf lemur
Well-Known Member
Yes the repairs have no consequences in terms of the availability of the pavilion
According to director Bobeks ofic. facebook, in line with EAZA coordinator proposal, two young gorillas are staying in "old" gorilla house, so into new one will move (during june) just alpha Richard, females and youngest male, Ajabu.
Colobuses and possibly some other animals are already in pavillon (don´t know if they are already visible in outdoor paddock, probably just from distance?)
Colobuses and possibly some other animals are already in pavillon (don´t know if they are already visible in outdoor paddock, probably just from distance?)
Elephantelephant
Well-Known Member
These are probably young males Kiburi and Nuru.
That would be correct. Kiburi (2010) and Nuru (2012) are adolescent males and will be starting to come into conflict with their father.
Ajabu (2016) is castrated, so he may be able to remain with the troop long term. That was presumably the reason for castrating him given the difficulties of placing males within Europe.
Its interesting that at twelve years old Kiburi is still very much a blackback but has started to grow bigger recently so his growth spurt may be approaching, but he seems to be one of the later developers. Both blackbacks seem to still get on very well with father Richard though, but I guess the timing of completion of the new building and moving the group over, means they are using the opportunity to split them now, rather than actually needing to do it yet.
Ajabu's unexpected castration caused a big outcry from objectors, of course the zoos just do this without any pre-warning of their intention, so to gorilla 'fans' who follow the various groups, it tends to come as a shock. And yes( putting aside the ethics of gorilla castrations), they knew he was another potentially surplus male to place somewhere in the future, which is why they did it.
Leaving 2 male gorillas on show in the old pavilion seems like a reasonable solution after all. It keeps this species - one of the zoo´s main attractions - visible during the incomming busy summer season. The zoo still havent recovered its attendance figures to pre-covid times (partly due to missing crowds of Russian tourists that wont return anytime soon because our government doesnt issue visa to them anymore) so every sold ticket is a win. Local gorilla fans might be tempted to postpone their next visit till autumn otherwise. On the other hand, I was hoping we would get free space for a completely new species in the old gorilla house, whatever it may be. A second smaller monkey species to be mixed with them might be still possible I guess? I would LOVE black mangabeys.
The new gorilla house wont be visible to visitors really till September, the bridges leading to it will stay closed.
The new gorilla house wont be visible to visitors really till September, the bridges leading to it will stay closed.
Well, I wouldn´t be too sad if there would be even less visitors at the time I would visit
(but from zoo PoV, you are right of course)And yes, I would also like to see even more new species too (there would be De Brazza monkeys, in new house, however, if there isn´t some change)
I think the layout of the old house doesn’t really allow such mix
Fat-tailed dwarf lemur
Well-Known Member
Hey Zoochaters,
I visited the Prague Zoo on the 28.05.2022! It's one of my favourite zoos in Europe. This fact only got stronger after the arrival of the two Formosan pangolins! That's why i went to the Indonesian jungle. Although I have been to this zoo several times, I could hardly remember this pavilion. The The current occupation of the night animal area is as follows:
Philippine palm civet
Northern Luzon giant cloud rat
New Guinea ground cuscus
Sunda slow lori
Formsan pangolins (three exibiths)
The probability to see the male is almost a 100 percent because you can see the sleeping box of th male. The female has two exibiths which are coneccted by a way which visitors can't see. I was really impressed of the climbing ability of the female she climbed at least 1.5 meters high and then carefully abseiled down. The whole time there were employees so that you didn't take photos with a flashlight. I talked wit them and they told me that the female likes too sleep long. Besides that they told me that the pangolin feeding time is ervy day an other one but on a Saturday it's at 3pm. So I went back at this time and indeed they were both very active and waited for the zookeeper. So my tip is to go and see the pangolins on Saturday at 3pm.
I visited the Prague Zoo on the 28.05.2022! It's one of my favourite zoos in Europe. This fact only got stronger after the arrival of the two Formosan pangolins! That's why i went to the Indonesian jungle. Although I have been to this zoo several times, I could hardly remember this pavilion. The The current occupation of the night animal area is as follows:
Philippine palm civet
Northern Luzon giant cloud rat
New Guinea ground cuscus
Sunda slow lori
Formsan pangolins (three exibiths)
The probability to see the male is almost a 100 percent because you can see the sleeping box of th male. The female has two exibiths which are coneccted by a way which visitors can't see. I was really impressed of the climbing ability of the female she climbed at least 1.5 meters high and then carefully abseiled down. The whole time there were employees so that you didn't take photos with a flashlight. I talked wit them and they told me that the female likes too sleep long. Besides that they told me that the pangolin feeding time is ervy day an other one but on a Saturday it's at 3pm. So I went back at this time and indeed they were both very active and waited for the zookeeper. So my tip is to go and see the pangolins on Saturday at 3pm.
Another fresh update on new gorilla house:
Gorillas will move there (possibly) next week.
Aside of guereza colobuses, there are already three male pouched rats and four de Brazza monkeys (these came from Valencia)
Mentioned are other future inhabitants, who should move there during summer: flying foxes, talapoins, red river hogs and brush tailed porcupines (at least some if not all species are kept already in Prague, only in different places)
Gorillas will move there (possibly) next week.
Aside of guereza colobuses, there are already three male pouched rats and four de Brazza monkeys (these came from Valencia)
Mentioned are other future inhabitants, who should move there during summer: flying foxes, talapoins, red river hogs and brush tailed porcupines (at least some if not all species are kept already in Prague, only in different places)
Aaand just a week later, everything is different.
Prague is getting a new 1,1 gorillas so they can restart the breeding (so far not announced from where) also one of their current females will be allowed to breed again, so the offspring from the new female won't grow up alone.
Current silverback Richard will stay with Kiburi and Nuru in the old gorilla house.
So, all female gorillas together with Ajabu have been already moved into the new house.
The zoo announced arrivals/offspring of month May:
A new breeding beisa male,
4 adult male Aldabra tortoises from Heildelberg (on loan),
a male addax and male Amur leopard cat from Nürnberg,
a male red panda from Olomouc.
3 pairs of straw-colored fruit bats came from Pilsen are destined for the new gorilla house.
2 great white pelicans from Aquazoo Leeuwarden
Not many interesting babies, very few singing birds you would expect at this time of the year.
A cinereus vulture chick is a nice surprise after several years of drought/unfertile eggs.
A single giant Asian pond turtle hatchling (eggs are usually discarded because other zoos are not interested to get this species).
Few west Caucasian ibex lambs, again after years when their herd was not allowed to breed. Some Himalayan tahr lambs. Blesbock twins.
Squacco heron chick, bred annually in small numbers, would be nice if rewilded to support locally very rare species.
Single Salvadori's fig parrot chick (hand-reared, I think I saw a short video of it).
Chacoan peccary, 7 Edwards pheasants, Javan rusa deer, crested myna, 4 northern shovelers
The zoo announced arrivals/offspring of month May:
A new breeding beisa male,
4 adult male Aldabra tortoises from Heildelberg (on loan),
a male addax and male Amur leopard cat from Nürnberg,
a male red panda from Olomouc.
3 pairs of straw-colored fruit bats came from Pilsen are destined for the new gorilla house.
2 great white pelicans from Aquazoo Leeuwarden
Not many interesting babies, very few singing birds you would expect at this time of the year.
A cinereus vulture chick is a nice surprise after several years of drought/unfertile eggs.
A single giant Asian pond turtle hatchling (eggs are usually discarded because other zoos are not interested to get this species).
Few west Caucasian ibex lambs, again after years when their herd was not allowed to breed. Some Himalayan tahr lambs. Blesbock twins.
Squacco heron chick, bred annually in small numbers, would be nice if rewilded to support locally very rare species.
Single Salvadori's fig parrot chick (hand-reared, I think I saw a short video of it).
Chacoan peccary, 7 Edwards pheasants, Javan rusa deer, crested myna, 4 northern shovelers
Why is the new house staying closed until September? It won't take the females + Ajabu more than a few days/weeks to become familiar with their new enclosure and be ready for public display. Just because they want to tie it in with their centenary celebrations?