Director´s view

Director´s view
Director´s view
Cape porcupine (Hystrix africaeaustralis) in Prague Zoo. Photo Miroslav Bobek

Lions as well as other large carnivores occasionally also hunt porcupines, probably mostly when they don’t have enough of their usual food, or when young males in particular test their limits (which is, all in all, a feature of all young males of a lot of animal species including humans).

Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) in Prague Zoo. Photo: Miroslav Bobek

Porcupine’s spines are an item in demand, weather as a souvenir, or a material for fishing floats. However, when I visited the Archives of the City of Prague, I discovered to my surprise that the restorers also use them when cleaning the bindings of old books. Lo and behold! I immediately offered that our zoo would become...

Six months old Gaia in Prague Zoo. Photo Miroslav Bobek

Today the female gorilla Gaia is exactly six months old. To have current pictures of her for this opportunity, I went to take her photos ahead of time.

Karlík with his young partner. Photo: Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo

This time I missed Humboldt penguins in their most noticeable courtship, part of which is a loud honking. I have, however, taken a lot of photos of the individual pairs collecting material for nest linings and showing affection to each other. The head keeper Kuba Mezei then identified them to me, so it came out that I also took...

Mating of the female Tang and the male Guo Bao on November 7, 2023. Photo: Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo

It is known all over the world that since July 1 we have the second baby of Chinese pangolin in Prague Zoo; its photos have been published in media from the United States to India to Japan. But this is how it started – and I happened to be around.

Zorro in the acclimatization enclosure in Alibi last Friday morning. Photo: Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo

We walked through the large acclimatization enclosure in Kazakhstan’s Golden Steppe and looked around in vain for the three Przewalski’s horses that we released here. Finally, we noticed a movement in the distance. But it was only a solitary saiga.

Photo: Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo

The trucks raced through the steppe, raising high clouds of dust behind them, along the improvised road, which the grader dug for them a few days ago. The moment when three Przewalski’s horses, loaded on their decks, would be able to leave the crammed transport crates after more than thirty hours was approaching. At that...

The training of loading the CASA plane at the military airport in Kbely was also part of the preparation. Photo Miroslav Bobek

Two CASA C-295M planes with Przewalski’s horses on board will take off from Prague and Berlin on Monday afternoon. Their destination will be the abandoned Arkalyk airport in central Kazakhstan. If everything goes well, the first phase of reintroduction of wild horses to this Central Asian country will be completed after more...

Macumba, photo: Miroslav Bobek, Czech Radio

“Stay where you are. Don’t move,” German primatologist Daniela Hedwig was whispering into a loud gorilla shouting. “It is OK, just don’t move,” she repeated, and I wondered if I should pick up my camera and try to take the photo of my life. I had already tried to imagine this situation before and I had always ended...

One of the “ambassadors of wild nature” in Prague Zoo is also the gorilla baby, born less than a month ago. On Saturday, May 11, at 11 am it was baptised by the famous primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall. Photo: Kateřina Jíšová

According to the book of Genesis, Noah’s Ark was 300 feet long and 50 feet wide. Converted to current units, it measured roughly 135 to 22 metres. Squeezing a pair or even seven pairs of all animal species on to it must had been a completely impossible task.