Zoological Garden of Plzeň

The ZOO in the Western-Bohemian metropolis was build as early as in the year of 1926 nearby the town’s center. Since 1963, it has been operating in the today’s area of Lochotín, where it was joined with the neighboring botanical garden in 1981. The rugged nature area is of 21 hectares in size and it has been under the intensive reconstruction into the ZOO-Geographic Biopark since the year of 1996. Until then, it had been well-known for its large collection of reptiles, for its breeding of the Texas ocelot and the snow owl, for its raising of the Chilean flamingo and the striped hyena, or for its raising of the turkey vulture. Among the others, in the year of 1996, the nature trail called “Development of Nature in the Quaternary Period” was created with the one-hectare forest run for a larger group of brown bears. The rare and attractive species are being progressively added on, out of which the most important is an arrival of the young couple of the Komodo lizards in October 1997, the most massive lizards in the world. In total, the collection has reached almost the number of 1,100 taxons and about 6,000 of other animals. 23 of those are subject to the European Rescue Program. A very interesting fact is the reality that about 70% of the species bred here are not present in any other ZOO in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The AQUA-TERRA exhibition has been in operation since February 2001 following a three-year reconstruction. The visitors can see the exhibitions of invertebrates, amphibians and reptiles. The lovers of plants will certainly like the succulent hothouse with more then 1,000 taxons and with semi-desert plants of the Old World. The collection of reptiles will certainly capture your interest with the Chinese alligators and with the large Abyssinian tortoises with their almost 300 raised younglings, but the visitors will also like to watch the play of the coatis in the trees or the coypus in the water. Among the most popular inhabitants of the zoological garden belongs the pack of Humboldt penguins, which are hand-fed by the keepers for the visitors on the daily basis. The current information system was expanded by five digital audio information boards in 2003, which are helping with orientation around the premises and they also make the visitors familiar with the other details of animal life. The DinoPark is located on the premises.