New Guinea Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus lawesii)

Warmly I thank the employee Terarium Praha for enabling to photograph the animal.

Here's my question; How the heck did this modest collection get their hands on an animal as rare in Europe as an Echidna?!

Because this collection imports all kind of stuff from SE Asia...

I see... I just hope it's well kept. I mean, by the pictures I've seen of this zoo, the conditions seem very poor for the animals...

Having spoke to people who visited it didn't appear to be too bad and a lot of animals were imported on behalf of other collections, or at least found new homes very quickly...

But all this is irrelevant now as the place is closed!

It's closed? How come?
PS: I have searched a bit, but I haven't find anything.

I'm not sure if it's closed or just closed to the public but Ralph went past recently and said it looked empty. It was also mentioned in the thread by LaughingDove regarding Praha and Plzen. Don't know any details but it's definitely ceased operating.

Interesting. It was still very much operational when I visited last month. It does look like an abandoned building from the outside and you have to ring the doorbell to be admitted.

The former owners were primarily dealers. All of the echidnas went to various European Zoos: Pilsen, Tierpark Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Rostock, Wroclaw (formerly at RSCC). Both Rostock and Pilsen have bred the species since then. Of the original import, only one individual appear to have expired. Early days perhaps but things look bright for this taxon.

The white-striped dorcopsis came via this route too.

The new owners of the terrarium are little less ambitious but still buy and sell. Mostly reptiles there now but also a few small mammals (coati, gundi, meerkat, armadillos etc.)

So, is it open to the general public, or does one need to make special arrangements? Do the new owners have anything to do with the previous owners? And are the *previous* owners still importing with a new base somewhere? Questions, questions, questions!