Information from Ostrava Zoo

History

The 1950s - the zoo comes into being in Ostrava-Kuncicky

The history of Ostrava Zoo is closely linked to the activities of staff at the Zarubek and Alexander coalmines, which involved building an area called the Miners' park in Ostrava-Kuncicky. Created in 1948 over six hectares near the Alexander coalmine,  the volunteers that took part in this operation included people from Ostrava and even school children.

The resulting natural park served for recreation, and included an open-air theatre, a dance floor, a shallow pool for children and a sandpit, plus there were even two tennis courts as well as volleyball and basketball facilities.

Following a suggestion from Mr Bohumil Vitek, it was decided in 1949 to set up a zoological garden in the evolving park. The first creatures to arrive included one male and two female roe-deer and five pheasants, with peafowl following very soon afterwards and other birds added upon completion of an aviary.

The official date when Ostrava Zoo came into being was 26 October 1951, when its first foundation deed was approved.

In 1952, the zoo’s staff numbered 6 people. In 1953, Bohumil Vitek was put in charge of managing the newly founded zoo.

At the time of its establishment, the facility faced serious problems in the post-war period, including a disastrous shortage of construction materials, which were often sourced from demolition sites. The zoo’s management approached companies throughout the region, asking them for their help in the supply of materials or complete items.  The limitations experienced are indicated by the fact that the zoo’s office comprised a 3x5 m room within stables.

The similar issues concerned suitable provisions for animals. Among others, the greatest problems arose in providing foodstuffs, with records showing that the zoo repeatedly lacked sunflower seeds, millet, bird seed and other food, whilst the zoo in Bratislava assisted several times to supply these. Good quality means of storing food were also in short supply. Reports refer to just one small refrigerator used to store meat in 1955, although the quantity of meat consumed per month amounted to 600 kg.

The most valuable animal at Kuncicky Zoo was a male Asian elephant named Pepik, whom the zoo obtained in 1956 from Prague, after it had been brought into the country as an eight-month-old calf donated by the Vietnamese government. This male elephant, which lived in a temporary wooden facility at Kuncicky as well as a new elephant house from 1962 at the other of the zoo's sites called Stromovka, died in 1964 due to a fall into a ditch.

The 1960s - the zoo moves and further evolves in Silesian Ostrava

As long ago as during the establishment of Kuncicky Zoo, possibilities were being looked into as regards another location for developing a new zoo. Beside the Greater Ostrava forest, i.e. the territory called Stromovka in Silesian Ostrava, there were other possibilities to choose from - the forest of Belsky les in the southern part of the town, Radvanice and Vresina.  When selecting the site, Stromovka park was preferred due to features like rugged terrain, diverse forest vegetation and plenty of surface water. Construction of the new animal park got underway in 1956, with animals being moved from Kuncicky in February 1960. Placed in temporary wooden buildings and cages relocated from Kuncicky, the creatures were kept in conditions that are now unimaginable.

The zoological garden was opened to the public on 1 May 1960, even though it should be mentioned that it was basically a large building site. With the coming winter, animals requiring a warmer environment were relocated in the premises of a rapidly completed and heated warehouse away from public view, and the zoo was closed to the public until April the next year.

As during the previous Kuncicky period, major development and other activities got underway at Stromovka park through self-help efforts and the voluntary work of citizens, students and local businesses, without whom setting up any new animal park would not have been possible.

By 1963, building work had been continuing but only very slowly. This was due to the fact that volunteers had been largely recruited from the community of retired coalminers and laypeople. Pensioners also made up half of the 58 permanent members of staff, since the zoo lacked enough funds to pay younger people.

The ‘initial visitor route’, as it is known today, was completed over time and the fundamental infrastructure necessary for the zoo to operate was put in place. This phase also comprised the time the majority of key exhibits and animal houses were set up, namely those for bears, primates, carnivores and the former elephant house. Except for the bear exhibit, these have remained in service until today, whilst only their form has been changed to a greater or lesser extent.

In the 1960s, the animal collection was extended with some distinctive species, introducing to the zoo’s grounds a polar bear, saiga antelopes, American alligators, flamingos and the first great apes - the chimpanzees Lumba, Numba and Peggy. The highlight of the decade was the transfer of a male African elephant, Petr, from Prague in 1965. According to media reports of the time, the animal was moved to Ostrava as the premises for keeping a male adult elephant in Prague were not satisfactory. Ostrava was selected as the sole institution that met the minimum requirements for managing such a mighty and aggressive elephant male, as Petr was, using a protected contact method.  However, this elephant’s residence at the zoo was all too brief, climaxing in his sudden death in 1968 due to myocardial infarction.

The end of sixties was marked by the arrival of another group of distinctive animals that have been etched into the records of Ostrava Zoo. Two examples include a female Asian elephant, Sona, imported in 1967 and kept at Ostrava until 1991, and a seven-year-old female hippo called Roza. The only such animal remaining at Ostrava is a male hippo named Honza, who was passed onto the zoo from Cologne Zoo personnel at the Rozvadov border crossing in July 1968.

The 1970s - Ostrava enters the premiere league

The seventies witnessed a phase of intense funded projects, with a huge increase in the quality of visitor services, namely upon opening a new car park and self-service restaurant. A multi-purpose building was erected away from public view that served as a rearing facility, this including animals for feed, which was also used as overwintering premises for birds. Furthermore, a quarantine facility was completed as was the veterinary surgery, and the animal kitchen was renovated.

A hippo house was opened for the public in 1975, this permitting relocation of animals from sites that were later used for tapirs and capybaras and most recently used as a nocturnal animal exhibit.

This period also involved the former petting yard being completed and the gibbon exhibit being set up on the island near the recent elephant enclosure, the latter now in use for lemurs.

The lower part of the zoo gained two spacious moated outdoor enclosures that formed the basis for the future exhibit of African hoofed mammals. These served for keeping llamas, camels, kulans and ponies for several years. The African ungulate exhibit was only completed in the 1980s, and the same applies to another series of works underway in the 1970s, e.g. the houses for aquatic birds and small carnivores, as well as the education centre.

The period is also marked by efforts to refine and significantly improve the animal collection and its structure, with managers concentrating on high-profile species regardless of a parallel decrease in total numbers of stock. This meant the entry of white rhinos, Pere David’s deer, thamin, the Grevy’s zebra, Diana monkeys, Amur leopards, kulans, Malayan tapirs, Sumatra tigers and other species new to the zoo. Incidentally, no longer were single and elderly animals introduced, or others not suitable for breeding, but frequently potential breeding pairs or groups. Since many of the new species subsequently achieved breeding successes over time, the period can definitely be referred to as Ostrava’s golden age in terms of breeding, this being something from which the zoo benefitted over the subsequent decade and which placed Ostrava amongst the top institutions of its kind throughout the country.

1972 was the year of the most extensive efforts in importing animals from the former USSR. It ushered in a pair of polar bears known as Fram and Vega and a trio of elks and Bactrian camels. The female polar bear Vega lived for 34 years, and when it died in 2006, zoo management decided to not continue with the species due to space issues concerning bear facilities.

In 1974, the zoo welcomed another transport of extraordinary value - white rhinos dubbed Natal a Dinah, whose origin was South Africa. While Dinah died in 2008, Natal is now kept at Dvur Kralove.  From the beginning, both rhinos were held in inadequate conditions, and as a consequence they never reproduced. Shipping Natal to the zoo in Dvur Kralove in 2010 put an end to the species in Ostrava.

The 1980s - a slight downturn

While the first half of the decade witnessed the completion of projects started or put into service in the 1970s, for instance the aquatic bird house, the education centre and the African fauna exhibit, all development later ceased.

In terms of animal management, despite a drop in the number of new species compared to the previous decade, there were still worthwhile arrivals like Syrian brown bears, binturongs and an orang-utan. Indeed, the male orang-utan Bimbo became one of the most popular attractions at the zoo in the 1980s and the early ’90s. This ape stayed in Ostrava from 1981 through to 1993, when it was moved to another zoo based on a coordinator’s recommendation.

The joint records of Czech and Slovak zoos registered for the first time offspring from species including the Caribbean flamingo, Sri Lanka leopard, Hawaiian goose, bobcat and trumpeter swan.

The 1990s - restriction but gradual stabilisation

As in the wider Czech zoo community, Ostrava experienced a period of instability and justified concerns about its prospects in the first half of the 1990s. Development activities almost stopped and changes afflicted the structure of species as well, with large mammal species being on the wane. For example, the large bovine and elephant stock was terminated.

Thankfully, the situation began to stabilise in the later half of the decade, and even funded projects were carried out, albeit on a small scale - for instance, new raptor bird aviaries (1997), a lynx exhibit and aviaries for parrots and injured wild birdlife (1998) were constructed and the deer finally obtained fresh stores for hay (1999).

Notable new species included the Canadian lynx and the Vietnamese sika. In addition, there was a major expansion in the numbers of parrots and anseriform birds. The zoo’s return to stability and gradual development were evidenced through it being admitted into the respected European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) in 1996.

The Millennium - revival of fortunes

The pattern of development that defined the late ’90s - constructing minor exhibits - continued into the first few years of the new millennium, which in 2000 involved a new lion enclosure and a flamingo overwintering facility.

However, a real turning point was the erection and opening of a new, state-of-the-art house for elephants in 2004. This effectively put an end to any further stagnation of the zoo. At the same time, the zoo joined the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).

It was chiefly the financial assistance and favour of the zoo’s founder, the Statutory City of Ostrava, that enabled the zoo to complete and open new exhibits for ponies and donkeys, an aviary for griffon vultures, another for birds of Tibet and China, an exhibit for cranes and that for the red panda.

Botanical footpaths were made ready and accessible, which was followed by new greenhouses erected to serve the zoo’s botanical department, ushering in a fresh phase for the institution as not only an animal park, but also a botanical garden.

To top things off in the first decade of the new millennium a unit containing exhibits for bears and langurs, entitled Chitwan, as well as a new petting yard were finished and opened in 2010.

Even facilities behind the scenes benefitted from much-needed funding, with extensive gas lines being installed, several wastewater treatment plants and sewerage systems built, and behind-the-scenes breeding facilities modernised, this including one for fish and reptiles. Alongside the new structures being developed, some outdated and unsatisfactory buildings were knocked down, like the old restaurant, an old greenhouse and tired-looking aviaries for birds along the main visitor route. 

As regards animals, some of the large mammal species were phased out, such as cougars, jaguars, polar bears and rhinos, while the collection’s diversity was greatly enhanced through species that had never really featured before - reptiles, fish, amphibians and invertebrates, in addition to headlining species like Sclater’s lemur, the Siberian crane, the clouded leopard and so on.

From 2011 on - the future looks bright

Thanks to extensive support from the Statutory City of Ostrava, as well as the projects being developed, the zoo has entered a decade of major redevelopment that is elevating the park towards the top-end of the country’s zoo community.

Bringing us up-to-date, in the near future a restaurant will be unveiled that shall operate all year round. Moreover, these thoroughly modern premises are to integrate an auditorium and an outdoor water world, the latter planned on the site of the former restaurant.

One of the fishing lakes is to be redesigned to feature a walk-through island exhibit with lemurs roaming free amongst visitors.

A new entrance area is under development to replace the existing one, leading to a major improvement in visitor comfort. In addition to ticket offices, a new zoo shop and toilets, the area shall incorporate new administration facilities for the zoo’s office.

Another project on the cards is a seal and penguin exhibit, which is to replace the existing iron and concrete bear facility located in the central part of the zoo. The opportunity of watching penguins through glass is sure to render the area more attractive, and shall go some way to making up for the polar bears that used to live there.

A very special way of presenting animals that have never really been shown off to their best before is an Asian safari park, which is planned to stretch over a meadow behind the camel enclosure.

The tigers are not going to be left out as a new exhibit awaits them, too. This will cover the as yet unused area of woodland when walking from the African fauna house. By the way, its ground plan shall exceed the existing tiger enclosures by ten times or so. The block will also contain a large walk-through aviary for aquatic birds.

A project to convert the existing aquatic bird house into the House of Evolution represents the biggest challenge of all. Chiefly designed for the chimpanzees and some other African primates, the building will also hold a number of smaller animal species.

In addition to these large-scale activities, the zoo is going to continue carrying out numerous smaller alterations, such as improving the design of older animal houses or producing exhibits of native fauna as part of the botanical trails.