Pilsen Zoo,
What a surprise, a seemingly little zoo in a fairly non descript town two hours drive either way from Nuremburg and Prague two famous cities with great zoos!
When you first drive into the car ark and approach the ticket office, there is every indication that ths wil be a small zoo without a lot of depth of species, there was even only one ticket booth open.
After entering and paying only $5.50 Euro my expectations were not high. The first exhibit sets the standard for the rest of the zoo IMO, a great lion enclosure using water moats and electric fencing as barriers. With mature trees and a decent size. It showed a practical use of space and a construction budget that ensured creativity and practicality were used to ensure a affordable enclosure that maximised public viewing and maximised design/appearance opportunities.
I turned left and tried to follow the suggested path, first enclosure of note was pigmy hippos with the largest land and water area for any zoo enclosure l have seen, they had a large lake with several primate islands that a few could be accessed by the pigmy hippos. Seeing the hippos move about the water and land area was very memorable. There were two adults in the enclosure.
The next enclosure was again a lake with primate islands but the lake was accessed by Indian Rhino who was swimming around and blowing bubbles again a first for me to see a rhino swimming, the blowing of bubbles looked like it was playing but l have no idea??
Another huge enclosure was next for brown bear, built into the side of a steep hill with an abundance of trees and grass areas that were not hot wired, however the two bears both seemed overweight and lethargic. I am thinking that Survival, may be the next best enrichment tool, more about this later. ( ps l am not suggesting we let a animal that is being exhibited starve, l just think they are given too easy a ride and for there own good in captivity )
Displays of huts and life size human figures showing how human existed in different bio geographical areas scattered throughout the zoo. When l saw the first one l was genuinely intrigued and surprised, l am sure teachers with school groups would love it!
Next of note to me was a great outdoor aquarium that l think showed fish from local areas. Often this type of exhibit has dirty glass and not finished very well. This area was very good, it appeared that you were following a stream with the occasional glass wall that showed some great looking fish. Another affordable display that was being exceptionally maintained.
Some great enclosures for snow leopards built on the side of a steep cliff, with the cats using all the viable spaces.
After spending 2 1/2 hours making my way around the steepest and app 2/3 of the zoo, l was really surprised to find the Madagascar area with walk through lemur enclosure, although none to be seen.
There is a network of runs linking the indoor Madagascar exhibits with islands, it also had the capacity to have Fossa use an enclosure for the morning and lemurs for the afternoon, l hope this was the case?
Unfortunately all of the lemurs l saw were either in doors by there own choice or sitting in the network of runs.
The zoo has a incredibly diverse range of birds and reptiles with enclosures scattered all over the zoo, there is even a converted air raid shelter, incredibly claustrophobic and with a horrific history, however they have included many reptile enclosures into the walls of the tunnels, well worth a look.
I found a area for eagles, vultures and owls here they were all tethered to short ropes and there would have been 15 of these birds all lined up with little boxes to sit in. It all looked very strange to me and without understanding the signage, it took me awhile to figure out that just near the birds was a huge outdoor theatre that at some stage could have easily accommodate maybe 20,00 people, it was 7/8 overgrown and derelict however it did appear that they still did bird shows here . It must have been amazing in its prime!
Tamarins and marmosets in a row of enclosures that had matching slightly smaller indoor areas, what was interesting is the diversity of species and seeing hairy armadillos and South American porcupines for the first time
I cannot review this zoo nod not mention plants, it seemed that just about every plant had a name tag, there was garden beds geographically themed and glass hothouses that at a distance looked like an animal exhibit and only when closer did l realise they only displayed plants. These garden beds and hot houses were everywhere! Horticulturist must LOVE this zoo, however e not once did l notice a member of the public look at one of these tags!
I particularly lie the garden display of NZ plants it was stunning with a small stream rung through it and what looked lime black volcanic soil, just a beutifull display.
Finally the staff, I have never seen more staff working at a zoo than l did today, they were cleaning, maintaining, feeding, grooming the animals and enclosures throughout the day (Thursday)
I loved this zoo and its great enclosures and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to visit one of the great zoos of the world.
, and the day l was there the keepers had rotated them through three yards throughout the day.