Blue crane at Prague zoo

The former cheetah enclosure with blue cranes, helmeted guineafowl, ground hornbills and secretary birds. June 2010.

I was suprised last time when I was there, to see cranes in cheetah exhibit. What has happened with cheetahs?

The cheetahs were diagnosticed to have feline corona virus. This virus can survive for weeks in the enclosure and there is no easy way how to desinfect it completely. So it was decided to let cheetahs off-show the whole year 2010. Birds were moved in so that its not an empty exhibit, they can´t catch the virus. It´s planned the cheetahs will return next year.

Looks very lush

This is very interesting. While cheetahs are obviously wonderful animals, there is something rather excellent about this selection of birds in such a large open paddock - seeing the secretary birds silhouetted against the sky as they strode along the top fo the small hillock was a highlight of the zoo for me.