ZOO Plzeň Plzen zoo news

Visited Zoo Pilsen this week, especially the rhinos. One day is too short to see everything. Wanna go back again asap. The zoo is also very interesting for botanists, you find lots of special and rare plants, too.

This is cute little baby girl "Maruška", 10 weeks old, 160 kg, video taken 15 April 2014:

Adorable Baby Rhino at Pilsen Zoo - YouTube

 

The Plzen zoo now has Penelopides exharatus, Ducula rosaeca and Ducula spilorrhoa. I think the latter came in but September 2013 though - confirmation anyone?

 

I don't know about the hornbills, but there have been an enormous number of different pigeons in the off-show area, above the mammal house, for a while now.

 

According to their HP, 1 pair of Ducula rosaeca arrived 22. Feb 2014 and 1 Penelopides exharatus arrived 28. Feb 2014. I can´t find anything about Ducula spilorrhoa. In February 2014, they received also Ducula aenea, Ptilinopus aurantiifrons and Zenaida asiatica. In December 2013, they received Phapitreron leucotis

 

What is an 'HP'? And, more importantly, if it has a list of all Pilsen's species, is it something that can be viewed online?

Apologies for any ignorance inherent in this question!

 

I'm guessing Home Page?

 

Yes, I meant their internet home page. There are now monthly updates of their offspring and aquisitions, only in Czech language and not comprehensive, but better then nothing
(list from February 2014)
P?ír?stky za únor 2014 - | ZOO Plze?

Their latest published annual report is for year 2012, the legal deadline for publishing of zoo annual reports is June, so watch this link in a few monhs for AR of 2013.
Výro?ní zprávy | ZOO Plze?

 

Ptilinopus aurantiifrons was already kept and had been bred off show for some time. They now have the Ptilinopus regina flavicollis paired up so hopefully they will have the same success Cologne has had. The Phapitreron leucotis will be exciting to see.

I believe the Ducula aena that came in in 2014 is D.a.aena, as opposed to D.a.paulina which has been kept since 2012.

The spilorrhoa may in fact be luctosa, all those birds similar to D.bicolor can be very difficult to tell apart. I apologise.

 

Hi all.

Does anyone have the exterior plans for Plzen zoo lion enclosure they could share with me?

Thank you in advance

 

That is a great link and the 2013 Annual Report is now available , with long English summaries and English captions to all photos . Wish UK zoos would produce something similar to this .

Do any other Czech zoos produce similar reports ? Would be particularly interested in seeing those for Prague and Dvur .

 

zooman,
I don´t think the zoo ever published such plans. At least I can´t remmember to see it anywhere. If you really need details/plans, you need to contact the zoo directly.

Short info - the current outside lion enclosure was built in 2002, for 2 mio CZK (equivalent to 70.000 USD at that time), you can see some info and pics in annual report of y 2002. The semi-island covers around 800 m2. The water moat is 5 meters wide and 3 meters deep. Wire is on both sides of the moat.
http://www.mapy.cz/zakladni?x=13.3597268&y=49.7581341&z=18&base=ophoto&source=muni&id=1243

Bele
All Czech zoos have to publish annual reports, it is a requirement of the local zoo licencing law (since 2003). But the quality and lenght varies a lot from zoo to zoo.

Prague annual reports are short and its quality is worse each year, no pics, no english summary of course. Just the bare minimum.
Výro?ní zprávy a rozbory hospoda?ení

Dvur Kralove used to have the absolutelly best annual reports among all Czech zoos, very detailed even with plans of new enclosures and so, many hundred of pages (but no English texts). After dismisal of Mrs.Holeckova last year, I´m sure it will go down the drain.
http://www.zoodvurkralove.cz/cs/o-zoo/vyrocni-zprava/

 

2 Chinesische Leoparden links

 

Hi Jana,

Another question if you don't mind

Is the zoo progressing with the plans to increase the size of the zoo?

I would have to compare this zoo to Nuremburgh and Sedgwick County Zoo as the most underrated and or unknown zoos around. All 3 are very very good!

 

The zoo haven´t abandoned its enlargement plans, the ownership of the land is secured. But restricted funds make their building time plan unsure now.

 

The lions are kept in by hotwire, not by the water moat. Four different lions already inhabited this exhibit, yound and old, none of them was really fat. None escaped.

The original plan was to remove the hotwire from lion-side of the moat after initial introduction-phase is over, so that lions can use their water moat for swimming. This was never realised.

 

Ahh okay thank you.

I only noticed a couple of hot wires to a height of 1 meter, can I assume that the hot wire actually runs allot higher than this?

 

No, the highest hot wire is really only ca 1,2 meter above the ground in Plzen.

The lion enclosure in Zlin uses similar design. But they have only a single hot wire, ca 0,4 meter above the ground. While none of their lions ever escaped, I never felt secure when I was on the visitor path in front of it. Compared to Zlin, Plzen feels like an Alcatraz.