Liberec ZOO / Liberecká ZOO (Czech Republic)
N 50° 46.580 E 015° 04.560
33U E 505358 N 5624955
Liberec ZOO, founded in 1919, is the oldest zoo in the Czech Republic. Visitors can admire here almost 1 000 animals of 170 species. ZOO is focused on breeding endangered and rare animal species such as white tigers and Golden takins.
Waymark Code: WM6DAN
Location: Liberecký kraj, Czechia
Date Posted: 05/16/2009
Views: 166
The Liberec ZOO is the oldest in the area of former Czechoslovakia. It was founded in 1919. It was used in part as the winter quarters for circus animals. Long after WWII, when Jirí Badalec was appointed the director, an essential modernization of the garden started.
The ZOO breeds more than 170 species with an overall number of 955 individuals. Out of these, 294 animals are registered in different European conservation programmes as EEP, ESB and RDB. These national programmes try to save species facing extinction. The treaty CITES concerning the international market of endangered species has the same aim.
Only in the Liberec ZOO you can see the largest breeding group of chimpanzees in the Czech Republic. In this group there are 4 males and 6 females. You can see the chimpanzees in any weather and even in winter they are let out to their outdoor enclosure. The White Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) can be seen only in the Liberec ZOO within the Czech Republic. This species of tiger has white fur with black stripes and you can recognize it thanks to its beautiful blue eyes as well.
The Liberec ZOO is also the only zoo in the Czech Republic which breeds a precious bird of prey Striated Caracara. These birds live only on the Falkland Islands, but have been almost exterminated by local inhabitants who were afraid that the birds were killing their sheep herds. Striated Caracara is a carrion-eater in the first place, therefore it has been killed for no reason for many years.
The Somali wild asses are involved in the European conservation programme EEP. It is almost impossible to see them in wild because they have been nearly exterminated as a result of human interference (armed conflicts, unsufficient environmental protection, the hunger of the local people). In ZOO you can see the largest breeding group of the Somali Wild Ass. A member of the European commision of EEP, Liberec zoologist Lubomír Melichar, watches over their breeding in the Czech Republic and the rest of Europe as well.
One of the missions of any zoo is to take its fully raised animals back to the wild. The Liberec ZOO joined this reintroduction programme in the case of the Bearded Vulture. This precious bird of prey is raised at the Liberec ZOO and is set free in the Alps under careful supervision of experts. Besides chimpanzees, the Liberec ZOO has the largest breeding group of Himalayan Blue Sheep. You can also find breeding couples of the Steller's Sea Eagle and the Bald Eagle in the lower part of the Zoo.
Except for two Japanese zoos, the Liberec ZOO is the only ZOO outside China which can boast the breeding of the Golden Takin. In the last five years we have been successful in breeding three babies - a male Golda, which is being raised in the Zoopark Chomutov at present, and a females Cadence and Bára.