Zoo Děčín Zoo Decin news

The zoo got last week a new Celebes crested macaque - a young breeding male. Yesterday, he managed to escape from the outsite exposition. 3 hours later he was found outside the zoo areal, he visited a nearby company areal and entered an industrial painting hall. An employee closed the door of the hall and called the zoo to pick him up.

Markhors have 2 youngsters, west caucasian turs just one.

The walk-though bird house is closed to visitors, a pair of king bird-of-paradise has built a nest close to the visitor path and violet touraco is sitting on eggs as well.

 

The bird house is open again for visitors but the zoo haven´t announced any bird chicks thus I assume a second breeding atempt by birds-of-paradise failed.

The 2020 annual report is online. It shows the last clouded leopard was sent away. Unknown predator (marder?) decimated the bird collection taking among others some owls and whole collony of night herons. Modernisation of wolf enclosure should finish in 2021 and wolfs are expected to return.

Local tourism is booming in 2021 and zoo Decin experienced highest July attendance figure since 70 years.

 

So, the wolf enclosure is not empty anymore - a sibling pair (non-reproductive) of Eurasian wolves arrived from Plzen sometime during this summer.

The 50-years old big cat cages (near bears) get demolished this week. Next year, a new exhibit for Amur leopards will be built there.

 

Glad about the Big Cat complex. Amur leopard were already here right?

 

Well, while new exposition of Amur leopards sounds definitely as good new, there are alread some visualisations, and... well...
(pictures of it for example there: Pavilon šelem v Zoo Děčín půjde k zemi. Nahradí ho moderní expozice pro levharty)
Not sure about these amur leopards, 2020 yearbook doesn´t mention them. In past, there were leopards, but I am not sure if amur.
But there are clouded leopards

 

A Demoiselle crane hatched at the zoo .

 

That ancient monkey house gets another modernisation. The old outdoor cage along upper visitor path gets replaced by a bigger one. Macaques and spider monkeys are using only one open-top outside pen in rotation till construction is finished.

The Mexican spider monkey group got another baby on 13th of June and counts now 5 members. Breeding female Melody (20) who was imported many years ago from Aurora zoo in Guatemala, her daughter born already in Prague, 7-years old Tirion (born in Prague to another imported female). And their 2 babies - one born in 2019 in Decin and now this newest one.

 

Recently a female Visayan spotted deer was born .

 

The zoo has two new species. Elongated tortoise and Alligator snapping turtle. Elongated tortoises are babies bred by local private breeder. The snapping turtles are also juveniles, seized by enviromental inspectors during an attempt of illegal importation. They are all kept off-exhibit in veterinary department till they grow a bit but you can see them through viewing window.

The former coypu exhibit is undergoing a renovation. It will host polar foxes next year.

 

Awesome! I was wondering about this particular paddock, absurdly large for those invasive rodents (especially compared to some other exhibits there)
Polar foxes would be nice addition (especially since they aren´t seen that much in Czech zoo... Brno, maybe?)

 

The coypu exhibit was originally built for another species, I think racoons.

Yup, polar foxes are now only in Brno, but tehy used tobe more common. Prague had one tame animal in its show before corona. I remmeber also at least a pair kept in ca early 1990s, on small carnivore path (what is now path of lory parrot aviaries). I have seen also foxes of silver phase kept at Chomutov ca 2 decades ago, in a little cage, probably sourced from fur industry.

 

Zoo had a change of heart (possibly when they saw the construction physically growing they, had to agree that it would be kind of small for leopard) and now confirmed there will be other, for now not revealed species

 

Good decision. That cage would be too small and low for leopards.

On the other hand, also a little bit pitty they decided to build so small. Europe urgently needs more captive spaces for leopards to keep all current EEPs viable.

 

And there IS some space around, I think...
If we are speaking about amurian leopards, some natural, quite simple paddock would be viable? (do they need heated house?) It would be cheaper (?) and better fitting for Děčín...

 

I visited the Decin zoo for the first time last month. Unfortunately it was a cold, dark and rainy morning, so I didn't get the most out of my visit and a lot of animals were indoors/ barely visible.

Still, I quite liked Decin.
First of all the walk to the zoo from the station provides you with amazing views of the town.

The zoo itself is nothing special, but it has a few interesting things to offer. Some animals like the bears, fishing cats , lynxes, wild boars, wild caprids and crested macaques have pretty spacious enclosures. Only a few I found to be quite bad (margay, ruffed lemur, snowy owl, demoiselle crane enclosures are quite small)

I quite liked their collection of European carnivores. Although some were no shows (wolverine, fox, wild cat) I did get to enjoy some very active badgers all well as the European mink. Their collection of European owls and raptors is also quite noteworthy. The zoo also offers some nice exotic species, like margay, jaguarundi, brush-tailed possum (not seen) visayan warty pig (not seen), Visayan spotte deer (not seen) and Mexican spider monkey.

The bird house is tiny, and If I wouldn't have already known about them, I would have been very surprised to find not 1 but 2 species of bird-of-paradise here. It was only my second time seeing the Magnificent Bird-of-paradise (I saw an adult male)

I think I spent about two hours in the zoo before going to their secondary location, called Paradise Islands (Rajske Ostrovy). The folder made it seem more interesting than it is ('biggest saltwater aquarium in the area' doesn't mean that much) but it's still good for an additional 30 minutes. Besides a few tropical saltwater tanks and a couple of terraria with various reptiles, the main draw here is a walk-in nocturnal enclosure for pygmy slow loris.

For those who are interested, I updated Zootierliste for both the zoo and Paradise Islands. Photo's of the Paradise Island have been added to the zoochat gallery (I might add a few photo's of the zoo later as well.)

 

Due to a malevolent damage caused to the fence of a macaque enclosure, leading to the escape of the monkeys, the zoo is temporarily closed.
Zoo Děčín on Instagram: "❌ZOO DOČASNĚ UZAVŘENA!❌ Upozorňujeme návštěvníky, že zoologická zahrada bude až do odvolání uzavřena pro veřejnost. Vinou nezvaného návštěvníka, který včera ve večerních hodinách poničil elektrický ohradník u jednoho z výběhů, došlo k úniku celé tlupy makaků chocholatých. Některé opice zůstaly v areálu zoo, jiné se ale již pohybují v jejím okolí. V případě, že byste opice zahlédli, nepokoušejte se je v žádném případě sami chytat a informujte nás urychleně o místě výskytu na tel. č. 603 249 680 nebo 605 866686."

 

Yup, all 9 Celebes crested macaques escaped last night. Some of them left the zoo grounds. Zoo staff with police is trying to locate them. Public is warned to keep their distance, the macaques especially dont like dogs.

The man who damaged the electric fence of the macaque enclosure was found by police dog at nearby property and arrested.

In other news, the zoo has 3 chicks of great grey owl - a first for their breeding pair.

 

Decin should never have left a motorbike and a vaulting horse in the enclosure

 

The zoo is open again for visitors as usual.

So far only 2 macaques could be caught - a female with her infant. One other female is staying within zoo area. The adult male with rest of the group is somewhere in the town.

 

The zoo announced they euthanised their last black crested mangabey, a female called Bábinka, due to rapidly failing health. She arrived in year 1980, produced 10 babies with her partner Hukan and with 42 years was the oldest of her kind in Europe.

RIP. I liked her.

Source